House: Hogwarts Style
by JiNglebellz
Summary: House, MDHarry Potter Crossover. Post HBP. Harry's sick, and none of the Healers know what's wrong. Hermione calls in a doctor: House, MD. Disclaimer: I don't own House or HP.
1. Chapter 1

A/N:

Disclaimer: I don't own House, MD or Harry Potter, though I'd really settle for either.

Please review if you like the story, it just popped into my mind and if there doesn't seem to be interest in it, I probably won't continue. So, enjoy, if there's any other person on the planet who loves House and Harry Potter. This will probably be H/G, H/Cam, R/Hr, etc. etc.

* * *

One sunny afternoon, two British teenagers strolled into the clinic at Princeton Plainsboro, arguing heatedly under their breath.

"'Mione, this will never work!" hissed the girl with bright red hair, who appeared to be the younger of the two.

"This may be his only chance!"

"They're Muggles!" whispered the red-head angrily, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"Ginny—just—"

"May I help you?" asked the nurse, eyebrows raised, as the girls approached the desk. They looked at each other nervously.

"Er—yes, actually," said the girl with bushy brown hair. "Hello, we're only in the States for a short time and my friend," she said, nodding towards the red-head, "is quite sick and needs to be checked out before we head home."

"What's the matter with her?"

"Well, everything really," said the girl with the bushy hair again, as the red-head nodded emphatically. The nurse frowned.

"All right. Here. Fill this out," she said, handing the first girl a clipboard. "Who is your insurance carrier?"

"Well, um…you see… the problem is… I'll have to make a quick phone call," said the girl, avoiding the question and looking around the room. "Er—is a Dr. House on clinic duty, by any chance, today?"

"Your insurance, Miss…?"

"Granger. Hermione Granger. Listen, I really think that we need to see Dr. House, it's urgent, and—"

"Miss Granger, I can't let you do that unless you tell me your insurance carrier."

"Well, of course she has insurance, but I really need to—"

"You called?" asked a voice loudly, startling Hermione as she whipped around.

"You're Dr. House?"

"Dr. House, if they don't have insurance then I can't allow—"

"What's the problem?" asked House, limping towards them in a bored manner.

"Please, Doctor, we need to speak to you. It's urgent."

"How urgent?" asked House, glancing at the red-head, who was closing her eyes and clutching her head in a very unconvincing way. "Oh my," he began loudly after thinking the situation over for a moment. "This _is_ urgent! Come on, quickly. Tell Cuddy that this is an emergency; there's no way I can do clinic duty the rest of the afternoon! What's your name?" he shot at Hermione, grabbing the clipboard from her hand and beckoning her into one of the Clinic rooms.

"I'm Hermione Granger," she said, following House with an air of determination, "And this is Ginny Weasley." The three entered a clinic room and House shut the door.

"So what's the emergency? Selling Girl Scout cookies?" asked House, yawning as he sat down in a chair.

"Well," began the girl called Hermione, biting her lip thoughtfully. "I had better start off telling you that Ginny isn't really sick."

"No!" gasped House sarcastically as he watched Ginny, who had been moaning and clutching her stomach.

"How'd you know?" asked Ginny, annoyed as she sat up.

House ignored her as he looked to Hermione. "What do you want? This had better be good, because I'm almost on level ten," he said, pulling out his Gameboy. He noticed one of the girls, Ginny, staring at it in awe.

"We need you to take on this case." House pressed the pause button and started keying away, deep in concentration. "It's our friend. He's extremely sick, and there are going to be horrible repercussions if he isn't healed. I heard about you from a friend of my parents who's seen you speak, and I think that if anyone can Heal him, you can. Are you listening?" she added angrily as House cursed loudly, still playing his Gameboy.

"You just made me fall off a cliff," he complained, looking up. "What's wrong with your friend? Why didn't you send a letter or something?"

"We did," explained Hermione eagerly. "But we needed to tell you in person; there's no way you would've accepted the case based on what we could write—and you didn't."

"What's wrong with your friend?" repeated House, wondering why they couldn't have just written it in a letter.

Hermione looked at Ginny nervously. "You see—there's something we need to tell you."

"And here I am thinking you just wanted to watch me get to Level 11."

"Okay, you are going to have trouble believing this," said Hermione, ignoring House's frustrating disposition.

"Try me."

"Ginny and I—and our friend—are not exactly what you'd consider normal."

"Define normal," said House slowly, putting down the video game and looking at the teenagers.

"We're Witches. And he's a Wizard. Wand-waving, Potion-brewing, magical people."

"Psychosis," muttered House thoughtfully. "Maybe I will take the case—if it's contagious, we may have a problem…." Hermione sighed.

"I was afraid you'd say that. All right," she said, reaching for her wand. "Er—is there anything in here you wouldn't mind losing?" she asked, searching around. "Oh, of course. The clipboard. Accio clipboard." The clipboard flew from House's arms and into Hermione's. Dr. House looked stunned for a moment.

"Nice trick," he said finally. "Where'd you learn to do that?" Ginny sighed with annoyance.

"Should I do the Bat-Bogey Hex?" she asked.

"No!" exclaimed Hermione. "We need to get him on our side, not make him call the Muggle Police."

"Police?" asked Ginny, confused. "What's a Police?" House was suddenly becoming very interested. What kind of sickness was contagious, made its patients suffer from psychosis, _and_ forget things from daily life?

"Muggle Aurors," explained Hermione quickly. "Hmm…" she said thoughtfully. After a moment, she pulled a miniature broomstick from her pocket. "Finite Incantatem," she said clearly, and the broom suddenly grew into a normal-sized broomstick. "D'you believe us yet?" she asked, looking at House desperately. He remained silent for a moment, thoughts churning.

"All right, I'm going to Apparate to the other side of the room," she said decisively. She then spoke under her breath. "Destination, Deliberation, Determination." A split second later, a loud crack sounded and she was standing on the other side of House."

"Is this Wilson's idea of a practical joke? Who are you people? Tell Cuddy I'm still not doing clinic duty for her next Tuesday."

"We're not kidding around. Doctor House, our friend is in trouble. There's a War going on right now in the Wizarding World. Our friend Harry is prophesized to stop Lord Voldemort, who wants to basically rule the world and kill all Muggles—non magical people," she explained quickly, "And something's wrong with Harry and no Healers (Magical doctors) can figure it out and St. Mungo's has been infiltrated with Voldemort's spies and we think it's a Muggle ailment and you're really our last hope." She let out the rest of the air she'd been holding in and breathed quickly.

"Why doesn't she talk?" asked House, nodding at Ginny.

"Because I'm not as familiar with Muggle terms… Doctor. Hermione was born a Muggle. We go to a boarding school for learning magic in Scotland—you won't have heard of it. Some people, when they turn eleven, receive letters inviting them to the school because they're magical. Others are born that way. There's a pretty large community of Magical people here in America, too."

"Does that broomstick fly?" asked House after a moment.

"Yes," said Ginny emphatically, grabbing it from Hermione's hands and mounting it. She took care to take off slowly and stayed close to the ground as she flew for a moment.

"Where's the engine?" asked House, smirking.

"It's Magic!" exclaimed Hermione, annoyed. "Listen. You have to believe us. We'll pay for your flight to England, you and any other doctors who can help. We'll give you food. We'll let you board at the school. Just please believe us, and please help Harry get better. If he dies—the world is doomed. And you don't have an idea of how literal I'm being, do you?" she asked, sighing as she collapsed onto a chair.

"Dr. House," began Ginny, a fire in her eyes. "If you don't come, we can make you. Shall I Imperio him, Hermione? Because I will!"

"Calm down, Ginny," said Hermione thoughtfully. "Listen. We'll pay you whatever you want to take this case. We'll pay for all the work you're missing. I'll even throw in a flying motorbike. What do you have to lose? If it's a practical joke, you'll be home in two days anyway."

House stood up, not believing what was unfolding before his eyes, or what he was agreeing to. "You can't make me do anything. You're kids. But I'll go. I'll need to bring along three doctors—if it's Cancer, we'll have to fly a fourth in. And I'll need correspondence with the Hospital."

"Anything," said Hermione. "Here are five tickets to England tomorrow morning at Four O'clock."

"AM?" demanded House.

"Yes, in the morning. Now, we just got five because we didn't know how many people would need to come, but you can go ahead and bring another person or just not use the ticket. We don't care. Someone will be at the Airport waiting for you when you land. I'll need you to obviously tell the other doctors and perhaps a supervisor about the conditions, but please keep it at a down-low. The last thing we need is the world finding out about us at a time like this. You all might be at Hogwarts for awhile, so bring enough luggage to stay comfortable. Tonight, I'll fax you everything you need to make the case look like one of a normal Muggle; a Medical history and an alias and all that." House nodded, dazed. What was he doing? Maybe the vicodin was getting to him. Why the hell was he going along with all this?

"Thank you, Doctor House. This means more than you can imagine. You are quite possibly saving the world." She sounded completely sincere. "We'll see you tomorrow. Have fun doing Clinic duty, I can tell you must really love it," she smiled.

"You said a _flying motorbike_ was involved?" asked House, pulling his pager out.

"If you really want it, it's yours," said Ginny, chuckling. "Please send us a list of medical machinery you'll need tonight, Doctor. Hermione will give you the fax number you can reach us at—we'd send an Owl, but an ocean is a long way to travel." House ignored that last line as the girls walked out of the Clinic and popped a pill. This was insane. One question remained: how to break it to the Ducklings?

* * *

Their reactions were very similar to what House's own had been.

"Are you insane?" demanded Foreman.

"Maybe you took a painkiller too many this morning, House; I mean, it happens," said Cameron in a would-be soothing voice.

"What do you think, Chase?" asked House after Cameron and Foreman argued for a minute. The two fell silent.

"Well," began Chase apprehensively. "It's not a joke. Magic…people, anyway. My father had some relative—a brother or cousin or nephew—someone was magic. Part of why we stopped talking. I just—when I found out, I couldn't believe he was buying into it all, and…well…the rest is history."

"Oh my God," began Cameron, groaning. "Is there an epidemic raging through this hospital?" She looked at Foreman incredulously.

"Do you actually buy this?" she demanded.

"When there were just people doing—magic, in this hospital, and they convinced House, and Chase knows about it—well it's kind of hard to argue."

"Has Cuddy agreed to this?"

"Well I wasn't going to share with her the exact circumstances," said House slowly.

"I don't believe this. I don't believe it!"  
"Yeah, we get that," snapped Foreman. "What time are we leaving?"

"Plane leaves at Four. Get to Newark at three."

"In the morning?" groaned Chase, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"House?" asked Cameron suddenly. "If there is such thing as magic, won't they be…different? Somehow? Medically?"

"I guess we'll find that out, won't we?" asked House as he limped from the room. "Three A.M! Cameron, bring coffee."

* * *

"He sure was some piece of work," said Ginny as she and Hermione arrived in the Floo of McGonagall's office.

"Is he coming, girls?" asked McGonagall, looking up from her desk the moment she saw them enter.

"Yes, he and three other doctors will be arriving tomorrow. We'll need to send someone from the order to pick him up. Preferably they can settle into Hogwarts before the rest of the school arrives."

"Severus should be up to it," said McGonagall absently, shuffling through some papers. "The Ministry's too full of Order members and Death Eaters to detect him and be able to follow him at the same time. And most everyone else is on some mission…."

Snape had been cleared by the Order once they had looked through Dumbledore's will and through the letters he had written to various order members. Dumbledore had told him to kill him—he had been dying already, apparently. Minerva still had trouble believing it. Any of it. They hadn't told the Ministry for fear of alerting the Death Eaters to Snape's true alliances (though Minerva still couldn't shake off a nagging suspicion that Snape was with whoever won). The man had been forced to parade around as a Muggle for the summer, while the Order had taken Draco Malfoy and his mother into hiding at Headquarters, which were getting too painful and crowded for the Headmistress' tastes.

"Snape and House should have fun with that," said Hermione, examining her nails. She was quiet for a moment. "I hope he can heal Harry."

McGonagall sighed sadly. Harry had fallen into a coma after destroying the Locket Horcrux, which Mundungus had sold to Borgin and had fallen into the hands of the Malfoys. Draco had redeemed himself by coming forward with it after eavesdropping on the "Dream Team" and Ginny at Grimmauld Place. Harry had decided to destroy it with the sword of Gryffindor. And it had worked—except Harry fell ill within the hour, coming out of his coma at random moments, in delirium. The Order had brought in some Healers they could trust, but to no avail. None of them could find anything magical that was wrong with Harry. After a few weeks, Miss Granger had begun doing research, and had stumbled across a Doctor in the States with a lot of experience in finding out what was wrong with people. McGonagall only hoped he would be able to save Harry. If You-Know-Who…no, Voldemort discovered where Harry was, or worse, his condition, they were all doomed.

While Harry had slept for the past month, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny, with occasional help from Lupin, Snape, McGonagall, and other Order members, had tracked down another Horcrux but were not totally sure how to destroy it. Without their friend, Hermione and Ron had been bickering more than ever, and Ginny had been more and more withdrawn. It was only a matter of time before the Press found out about the sickness—they were already having a field day with the "disappearance" of Malfoy, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny.

McGonagall turned back to her students. If this Doctor House didn't have the answers, she certainly hoped that some higher power did, and that the answer wasn't one that would include the world's imminent demise.

* * *

A/N: Review! 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own it still!

Thanks for the reviews! Please keep them coming.

* * *

At three O'clock sharp, Dr. Allison Cameron arrived at Newark Airport heaving two large duffel bags and rolling another oversized suitcase.

"Cameron! Hey! Cameron!" called a voice from a luggage checking desk. Stifling a yawn, Cameron waved to her colleague.

"Why are you so perky?" she asked him between breaths as she dragged her bags over to the counter.

"Haven't slept," answered Chase, grinning and grabbing two of Cameron's bags. "Hose and Foreman are waiting in line at Security right now. Let's check these and meet them over there."

"Don't tell me you all stayed at the hospital all night," groaned Cameron, annoyed. "You're all going to be grouchy and tired later."

"Hey—we have quite a while on the plane to sleep," answered Chase. "Ah, yes, to London," he said politely to the woman working at the counter. After a few minutes, Chase and Cameron made their way to a security checkpoint, standing in line with Dr. House and Dr. Foreman.

"Where's the coffee?" House asked Cameron as she walked towards them, not even glancing in her direction.

"At Starbucks," answered Cameron, bringing a hand to her forehead. "Do you have any information about the case?" she then asked House, eyeing the file folder in his hands.

"Seventeen year-old male. Apparent "savior" of that…world." Cameron tightened her lips and then grinned half-heartedly.

"Right."

"Did some strange thing—they were pretty vague about it in the fax—then fell into a coma. He came out of it and complained of intense pain, migraines, had some delusions—though apparently they might not have been delusions, because he has something along the lines of prophetic dreams."

"Is this actually legit?" asked Foreman after a moment of silence. "I mean—that's great if that world of people exists and all…but how is this sickness supposed to be relevant to what we do? To normal people?"

"Just because they think they can do magic, or can, or whatever, doesn't mean that they're not normal. I mean, we deal with weird cases all the time," said Chase as they made their way to the front of the line.

"Okay, any wallets, keys, money, cell phones…" said the security agent, bored. "Um, Sir, I think you might want to put your cane through, too." House sighed loudly and gave the agent a dirty look. Cameron rolled her eyes. House was going to get himself pulled out and—Cameron looked up as the metal detector started to beep as she walked through it.

"Miss? Can you step aside for a moment?" Frustrated, Cameron turned to roll her eyes at Chase and Foreman, who were trying to hide their laughter.

"Now, now, Cameron, what have I told you about mocking security agents behind their backs?" asked House, shaking his head, as the man watching their bags as they went through the machine gave the doctors an annoyed glance.

"House," said Cameron sharply, "it is three in the morning and I am not in the mood to—" She was cut off as a security agent started to run a metal detector up and down her body. Grimacing, Cameron heaved a sigh and exchanged a dark glance with House, who seemed to be enjoying her discomfort.

* * *

Back at Hogwarts, Hermione Granger was straightening up the Gryffindor Common room, which she, Ron, and Ginny had been the sole occupants of for the past month, while Harry had been a patient in the Hogwarts Infirmary.

"You know, Harry wouldn't have wanted us to stay here all summer," said Ron, coming out of a deep thought.

"I know that, Ronald," answered Hermione testily. "What choices have we? I mean, we have made significant headway on Hufflepuff's Cup. And we've been extracting information from Draco." Ron snorted loudly. "What? We have."

"He hasn't told _us_ anything. And since when is he 'Draco'? I think that when Harry gets moved today, we shouldn't stay here. I think we need to go track down the bloody Horcrux."

"Oh, and we can just eat and sleep wherever we end up each night? When Voldemort's after us? Oh, come on, Ron. Harry would've wanted you to say the name."

"Stop talking about him like he's dead or something," frowned Ron. "And we shouldn't trust Snape. This whole situation—we've always gone with Harry's gut. And Harry's gut is in a coma. This is all my fault, if one of us had plunged the sword into—"

"Ron. Stop talking like an idiot. We didn't know that would happen. It might not even be magical—he might have gotten sick if it had been me that had destroyed the Horcrux, or you. So stop." Ron stewed another moment.

"Where's Ginny?"

"Probably at Harry's bedside. Merlin knows she's been there enough this past month."

"When are we leaving?"

"This afternoon," answered Hermione. "I was originally hoping to install the new doctors into Hogwarts; there'd be a lot of room here, but I think we may have to do it in Grimmauld Place."

"Why?" demanded Ron.

"Too many charms," answered Hermione. "Muggle technology won't work here. It might not even work there. Certainly not at the Burrow."

"Well where else could we possibly go?" demanded Ron, burying his head in his arms.

"Godric's Hollow," answered Hermione promptly. "Muggle village. We can put Harry in Grimmauld and House's staff either in Hogwarts or at Number 12 until the house—you know what I mean—is ready. Then we can move them all in there and get working."

"It'll take weeks, Hermione."

"You're forgetting that we have money. We can get a house built by magic that isn't necessarily magic. And we can do it confidentially, that way You-Know-Who doesn't find out what we're up to."

"I dunno, Mione. Run it by McGonagall or Lupin."

"Which Lupin?" asked Hermione teasingly. Ron rolled his eyes.

"Why do all the girls keep doing that? It's annoying."

"Yeah," sighed Hermione. "I don't know. It's sweet. One of the only happy things that's happened this summer. And Harry got to be there, at their wedding. It's good."

"So what are we doing? Moving back to the Burrow while we look for the last Horcruxes?"

"Grimmauld for now," said Hermione with certainty. "I want to be with Harry."

"Me too. Merlin, Hermione. We owe him so much. He saved Ginny, my Dad, me," said Ron slowly.

"The whole wizarding world," laughed Hermione, sitting down next to Ron sadly. "Have a little faith. Maybe he's finding the 'power the dark lord knows not'." Ron stroked her arm absentmindedly.

"Mum's probably worried sick. I should drop by today."

"I wouldn't do that," said Hermione quickly.

"Why?" asked Ron curiously.

"Er—I can't really tell you in good faith."

"What happened?" demanded Ron. "Is everything all right?"

"Of course. It's just that the twins—they kind of…turned the Burrow into a swamp."

"They _what_?" demanded Ron angrily. "Mum's going to go psycho on them!"

"Well, you're obviously right. I think they wanted to give her something to do. Your Dad was working today, Bill and Fleur recently got married and left, Charlie is back in Romania, Percy—you know, Fred and George work, and you and Ginny ran off to fight evil. I think she was feeling kind of abandoned, or useless. So they set off a swamp."

"Great. They should find Voldemort's evil Headquarters and make a swamp there."

"Wormtail would fit right in. And that snake. The Horcrux-snake."

"This conversation is pretty depressing, Hermione."

"Yeah. Let's go find Ginny and then Remus so we can get out of here…oh, and I'm to tell Snape that he has to go to the airport to get those Muggles."

"You're what?" asked Ron, incensed.

"It's not like I'm in mortal peril, Ronald."

"I'm going with you."

"I'm perfectly capable of—"

"It's not you I'm worried about," said Ron darkly.

And so it was, three hours later, that Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley were standing on the doorstep of Spinner's End. "Should we knock?" whispered Ron as they climbed the steps apprehensively after Apparating to the street.

"No, let's just stand here all day," said Hermione, rolling her eyes. "Of course we should—" But before Hermione could finish her sentence, the door swung open.

"What have I done to deserve the sudden presence of 2/3 the Dream Team on this fine afternoon?" asked a silky voice from inside. "Come in, quickly," said Snape urgently. "If you're seen here, my cover is blown." Hermione and Ron were ushered inside, where a middle-aged blonde woman was sitting on a love seat.

"So that's the Mudblood?" she asked bluntly, sizing Hermione up. "What's so great about you, huh? Why does the Dark Lord wanna kill you, girl? I mean, I'm a pureblood! A Black! A Malfoy. My blood is so pure that—Sev—what are you. Severus, your hair," she said quietly, focusing on Ron.

"Is this what she does every day?" snapped Hermione with distaste. "You get her drunk?"

"It's far better than dealing with the real thing, let me assure you," said Snape under his breath. "Narcissa. Go to your room."

"Wha'?" she asked. "You can't—my room!" She began laughing loudly.

"Narcissa—go!" After several more minutes of pleading and arguing, Snape grabbed Mrs. Malfoy's wrist and dragged her into her room, slamming the door behind her.

"Why are you here?" he asked the moment the door was shut, turning to his two visitors.

"Er—Sir," began Hermione after glancing at Ron and realizing that he wasn't going to talk to Snape if his life depended on it. "There's a team of doctors coming in today to be with Harry. They are specialists who have solved numerous medical cases and are quite renowned within the United States."

"And you tell me this why?" asked Snape, drumming his fingers against the coffee table as he sat down.

"Well, you see—they're Muggles."

"What?" asked Snape harshly.

"It may be Harry's last chance, Sir. And, er, we need you to collect them from the Airport later on and bring them to Hogwarts before the feast commences."

"Miss Granger. I am wanted by the Ministry. There is no way that I'm going to risk my safety and Albus Dumbledore's final wishes by blowing my cover on some Muggle Healer crackpot!"

"Please, Sir, everyone else is on some kind of mission, and Ron and I are a bit dangerous and high-profile right now to go traipsing into a Muggle Airport! We're supposed to be missing; people think we might be dead. And if we're seen without Harry, it puts us in a horrible position. Voldemort could find out!"

"_Don't speak the name_," hissed Snape.

"I'm sorry, Sir," said Hermione. "But please. Do one thing for Harry. Do it—do it for Lily. I know you were friends. Please don't sit here and let her son die."

"Miss Granger, you have overstepped your boundaries. You know nothing about Lily Evans, so don't act as if you do."

"I—I didn't—I didn't mean to," whispered Hermione as Snape stood up menacingly and stepped towards Hermione.

Ron stood up at the same time. "Get away from her," he said angrily.

"Weasley, do not mess around with me. Granger, I'll do it. For the Order. Let McGonagall know I'm doing it. What time does their flying contraption land?"

* * *

Several hours later, four doctors disembarked their plane sleepily. "Do you know who's picking us up?" Cameron asked House as they made their way to the luggage terminal.

"They said we'd know," said House.

"Look over there," whispered Chase suddenly. That weird-looking guy dressed in all black with the greasy hair—he's holding up a sign that says 'House'."

"Think that's for us?" asked Foreman, hoisting his duffel.

"No, it's probably for some other of the multitudes of 'House's' at this airport," said House grumpily. "What's the matter, Chase, his hair not clean enough for you?" Chase rolled his eyes.

"I wonder if vampires are real?" asked Cameron in what would have been a nonchalant tone.

"Well, let's get this show on the road," said Foreman finally, ignoring her. He led the group towards the man holding up House's name.

"Are you Doctor House?" asked the man nonchalantly as Foreman approached.

"That would be me," said House. Snape raised his eyebrows.

"All right then. You all may follow me. We are going to travel via Portkey."

"Um, Sir, who are you? And what's a portkey?" asked Foreman hesitantly. Snape eyed the Muggles wearily.

"I am Severus Snape, former Professor at Hogwarts. A portkey is a magical device. You touch it when it's activated and you're transported to a prearranged area."

"Sir, where did you say—"

"I do not enjoy answering questions. I tolerate no nonsense. It isn't my fault that you are Muggles, and I would prefer that you keep your questions to yourself; they will probably be answered soon enough."

"Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed," muttered House darkly. "And…Professor, let me remind you that it was your 'people' who begged us to come. We certainly didn't choose this on our own accord."

"My 'people'?" repeated Snape crossly. "Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers certainly are not _my people_. The boy you are to be treating is an attention-seeking, delusional brat who has been famous since he turned a year old. The only reason I'm even supporting them is that there is this wretched tradition through the years of the 'good side' prevailing. I do not want to lose my freedom."

"So is it true you're in a war?" asked House lightly, acting as if he had not heard Snape's glaring ultimatum.

"Unfortunately."

"What's it over? Someone pulled some other guy's bunny out of a hat? You know, I'm glad magic exists, because I've always wondered how—"

"Wizards are not foolish Muggle _magicians_," hissed Snape. "If the wrong side wins this war, it will affect even your pathetic lifestyles. Muggles like yourself will be eradicated, or forced into slavery. Yes, your little reality will cease to exist." Cameron, Chase, and Foreman all exchanged a dubious glance. An unsettling silence fell upon the group.

"Over here," whispered Snape hastily as the group reached the exit. He pulled a small key from his pocket. "Everybody touch this. Try not to draw attention to yourselves."

"But what's going to happen?" asked Cameron, looking up at House quickly. "People are going to stare…"

"Five. Four. Three."

"But what—?" began Cameron again, but she was cut off as a sudden as a pulling sensation came over her naval. Suddenly it was as if she was spinning out of control. A moment later, gasping for breath, she landed on the floor in a heap beside Chase and Foreman. House had somehow remained standing along with Snape.

"What the hell was that?" asked Chase groggily as he made to stand up.

"A portkey," snapped Snape irritably.

"Where are we?" asked House curiously, taking in his surroundings. They had appeared next to what looked like a train station near a little village.

"Hogsmeade Station," Snape explained. "Follow me. We're walking up to the castle."

"Castle?" asked Chase curiously. Snape ignored him, walking ahead, robes billowing.

Chase, Foreman, and Cameron all stood up quickly and followed the wizard, feeling quite out of the loop.

"Are you all right?" asked Cameron under her breath as she and House fell a few steps behind.

"I'm fine," said House, avoiding her eyes and taking out his bottle of pills.

"House," said Cameron, sighing. "It's okay to admit that you're—"

"I don't need your help," he said harshly, speeding up to try and catch up with the group. As Cameron opened her mouth to retort, he looked her in the eye. "That guy looks worse off than me. Go save someone else for a change," he said, nodding towards Snape, who was at the moment answering Foreman's questions, however unwilling he was.

All of the sudden, a pile of ruins came into view.

"Is that the school?" demanded Cameron. "That's so unsanitary! How is it even legal? It's no wonder people are getting sick."

"Damn," cursed Snape. "Nobody took the Muggle-repellant charms off of the bloody castle." He turned to the Muggles with annoyance. "You'll just have to follow me. Once you're in, you'll be fine. It just won't look like you're going into a castle. It will be one on the inside."

"I don't think I can let my team do this," said House suddenly. "No, there's no way. I just don't believe you."

"Oh no!" exclaimed Chase suddenly.

"What is it?" asked Cameron, concerned.

"I forgot my bag—at the airport. I have to turn around."

"No you didn't," said House, frowning. "It's right here."

"I have to go back," said Chase. A dazed look came over his face.

"I forgot something, too. My toothbrush. It's in New Jersey. Let's go back," said Foreman.

"What's happening to them?" demanded Cameron. House frowned.

"It's the Muggle-repelling charms!" yelled Snape. "Just follow me!"

"No," said Cameron, voice quivering. "What's happening to them? House, are they _hallucinating_?"

"Come on!" yelled Snape. Desperate to hurry and complete his job so he could get away from the school before all the students arrived (in twenty minutes), he whipped out his wand and pointed it at the woman.

"Wingardium Leviosa," he said in a bored tone. She shrieked as she was lifted into the air. "Follow me and she doesn't get hurt," he said threateningly.

"Put her down," demanded House.

"Will you get those two idiots to follow us?"

"Fine. Fine. Put her down." Without arguing any further, Snape swept his wand sideways and Cameron floated to the ground. House yelled at Chase and Foreman, and then the group of five resumed their trek into the wreck.

"Are you all right?" House whispered to Cameron as they began moving.

"I don't see why you'd care," she replied harshly.

"I don't care," declared House. "But I'm the only one who can be mean to you."

"Getting protective?" she smirked after an inward debate on whether to argue or not.

"No," said House flatly, passing her and walking next to Snape, whom he 'accidentally' smacked with his cane. Snape turned to him angrily and pulled out his wand.

"I don't care if you are crippled, do not cross me!" he said furiously.

"I'm not the one dressed like a priest who joined some magical cult," replied House, not put out in the least. Snape whipped around, wand extended.

"That is IT! You are Muggles! Learn your bloody place! I can curse you into next week if you so much as—"

"Having fun, Severus?" came a voice behind them. Everyone turned around. Approaching the group was a middle-aged, graying man, who was wearing normal clothes and smiling.

"Lupin," acknowledged Snape. "They said you were on a mission and couldn't pick up the Muggles. What changed?"

"I got back. Honestly. Actually, I was moving Harry this afternoon."

"Harry as in patient-Harry?" asked House curiously.

"Yes. By the way, I'm Remus Lupin. Listen, you'll only be staying in Hogwarts tonight, then we'll move you into Grimmauld Place, where Harry's staying."

"Where _is_ Hogwarts?" asked Chase, annoyed. "Because I really need to go back to the States, there's this thing I forgot—"

"Oh!" exclaimed Remus. "The Muggle-Repelling charms. I'll take them from here, Severus—we don't want any students seeing you."

"Thank Merlin," said Snape dryly. With that, he set back off towards the gates.

"Okay, everyone, if you'd just follow me—I promise, you'll be in the school in no time. What are all of your names again?"

"I'm Dr. House," said House immediately. "Little girl's Dr. Cameron, hair-boy is Chase, and the one acting like he has no brain—he did have part of it taken out, to be fair—is Dr. Foreman."

"Nice to meet you all," smiled Remus. He then realized that all the Muggles were hauling heavy luggage. He sighed resignedly. "Did Severus do nothing to lighten the load?" Upon receiving several blank glances, Remus waved his wand and muttered an incantation. Suddenly, all of the bags felt feather-light.

"Wow," murmured Cameron, glancing back at her bags.

"Nice, isn't it?" asked Remus, laughing at her expression.

* * *

Hermione, Tonks, and Ginny were waiting in the front entrance of Hogwarts for the doctors' arrival.

"Poor Muggles," said Tonks sympathetically. "Having to deal with Snape the whole way here…"

"I know," laughed Ginny. "But—I mean, we have to get them to like us; to like our world. We're going to have to explain a lot if we want them to put in all their effort to save Harry."

"Yeah right," laughed Tonks. "After they go into The Most Ancient and Noble House of Black—there'll be no turning them towards us."

"Well, maybe we can find a way to get Mrs. Black down, at least," reasoned Hermione. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Sirius tried that until his dying day, 'Mione."

"Right. Anyway, I hope they arrive before all the students—we'll want to avoid awkward questions."

"Hmm," said Tonks thoughtfully. "We should've just brought them to the Burrow or something. Where will they sleep here?"

"Head's Rooms," answered Hermione quickly. "The Heads were going to be me and…Malfoy. Seeing as we won't be here, McGonagall will announce two new heads tomorrow once we're all gone."

"Do the House Elves know about them?" asked Ginny. "I mean, trust an elf like Kreacher to run and tell its dark masters or something."

"His or Her, Ginny, not 'it'."

"Don't start with S.P.E.W. right now, please…oh, look! Here they come."

Indeed, four weary Muggles and a wizard as cheerful as the circumstances would allow had just walked into the entrance.

"Whoa," said the first one, in an Australian accent.

"Dr. House!" exclaimed Hermione. "I'm so glad you all could make it."

"And I'm sure that's why you sent a raving, bitter, pale…man after us," smiled House sarcastically.

"Uh—right. Sorry about that; he was the only one available."

"Wotcher, everyone," said Tonks brightly. The Doctors all took in her bright apparatus and bubblegum hair. "Hey, darling," she said, walking over to Remus, who enveloped her in a hug. Dr. Cameron shot a glance at Dr. House, who wasn't meeting her eyes.

"So, um, follow me, everyone," said Ginny, smiling. "Doctor House, you and these two—"

"Foreman and Chase," said Cameron, gesturing at the two.

"Right. You'll have to share a room tonight. After tonight, you should all get your own room. Doctor—?"

"Cameron."

"Right. You, Hermione, and I will be sharing the adjacent room. The two of us are sort of what you'd call MIA in the Wizarding world right now, and it wouldn't be a good idea for all the students to see us."

"I can handle that," smiled Cameron, now looking at the ceiling of the Great Hall. "It's amazing how they got the ceiling to mirror the outside so perfectly—wait, let me guess. Magic?"

"Yes," said Hermione, grinning. "I know; it's amazing. I came here for the first time six years ago; when I had just found out I was a witch. I had never even imagined—it was just amazing."

"So, Ginny," said Remus after a few moments. "Do you want to see Harry tonight? I'll take you to check on him, and if you'd like you can stay with your parents tonight." Ginny sighed knowingly.

"Right. Yeah, okay. I suppose so."

"Wonderful. Tonks, you know where I have to be tonight." Tonks nodded sullenly. "Will you stay at Hogwarts with Hermione? I'd feel a lot better knowing you were safe."

"Fine," said Tonks, exhaling noisily.

"Great. So I'll see you tomorrow, all right, darling?" Tonks nodded. "Okay, so Ginny and I will go tell the Headmistress they've arrived, and Tonks and Hermione, you can bring our guests to the Heads rooms and explain in detail Harry's medical history. I put what I could salvage from the Dursleys this morning in the room, so it should be on the table waiting for you."

"All right. Thanks, Professor; I'll see you tomorrow, probably."

* * *

House watched as the man left the castle—it certainly did seem to be a castle on the inside, at least. Turning back to all ofthe bright young faces surrounding him, he fought back a groan. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

A/N: Okay, thanks so much for the reviews. Please keep them coming! Now I have a question, do you all think that this story would be better under House or HP? Just curious. And next chapter will be mostly in House's POV. Let me know what you think of the story so far! 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Please review!

* * *

Gregory House watched idly from the window in the Heads' Common Room as a multitude of students streamed into the castle below. The room had lapsed into an unsettling silence, the only sound (the bounce of his yo-yo) reverberating through the room steadily.

"So how many students attend here?" asked Chase curiously. The girl called Hermione answered immediately.

"Approximately 1000, normally," she explained. "But this year…you know, the war. A lot of parents didn't allow their children to return for fear of their safety. And after our Headmaster was murdered, the Board of Governors almost shut the entire thing down."

"Your Headmaster was murdered?" asked Foreman, eyebrows furrowed. The two witches nodded sadly.

"I'm out of school, obviously," said Tonks, "but I was there that night. Death Eaters broke into the school with inside help, and S—" She was cut off as Hermione elbowed her discreetly. "Someone killed him."

"That's awful!" gasped Cameron, looking around at her colleagues worriedly. "I mean, is there a lot of crime going on? Are we safe?"

"What are Death Eaters?" added Foreman.

Hermione and Tonks exchanged a glance. "I suppose these questions were inevitable," sighed Hermione resignedly.

"Listen," began Tonks. "Don't get scared away. There are bad things happening in this world, yes. But those things will be happening whether you stay or whether you leave."

"You all are going to be in danger if Voldemort's followers find out first, what's happened to Harry, along with the fact that you're helping him, and especially if they find out you're Muggles. But the place we're going to hide you in—there's no way they could ever get in. The secret keeper is in a coma, after all..."

"Listen," began House sharply. "We don't have any idea what you're going on about. We don't know why you're in a war, who that man is, we barely know anything about the patient. How about you start from the beginning?"

Hermione nodded slowly.

"This may take awhile. Is everyone comfortable?" House lifted his eyebrows expectantly as the other three doctors nodded. "Great. Okay. About eighteen years ago, newlyweds named Lily and James Potter were fresh out of Hogwarts…."

* * *

An ocean away, Doctor Lisa Cuddy cursed under her breath as she sifted through the file House had left behind before he'd taken off. "Damn House," she muttered again, slamming the file onto her desk and slapping her forehead.

"What's wrong?" asked Wilson as he walked into her office. "House's 'case'?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Cuddy angrily. "He just…vanished. This case doesn't have sufficient hospital records, a patient history, there are inconsistencies…"

"Shocking," said Wilson sarcastically. "Relax. I'm only kidding. As a matter of fact, I've tried calling him all day. All four of them, actually," sighed Wilson, taking a seat. "Maybe this was just their way of telling us they want a vacation."

"Some vacation," snorted Cuddy. "Listen to this," she said, picking up the file once more. "The kid is seventeen. He's experienced significant emotional and physical trauma recently, but he's experienced it his entire life, apparently. And authorities knew about it enough to write it down on his damn medical history. They don't even explain what the trauma is. And he goes in and out of a coma, complaining of all sorts of pain… intolerance to heat, rapid heart rate, cough, fever… add that to a coma, and what the hell is it?"

"I don't know," said Wilson thoughtfully, shaking his head. "I'm not the board-certified diagnostician."

"You can't get ahold of him?" asked Cuddy, sitting up pensively.

"No idea. He said he'd call to check in, though."

"Do you think something's happened to him? I should never have said this was okay, I just _trusted_ him for once in my life and he has to go and disappear!"

"Calm down," said Wilson, standing up with her. "I'm sure he's fine. He always turns up…unfortunately."

"Thanks," said Cuddy, smiling slowly. "I just—I'm so…_mad_ at him! I thought he had better judgment."

"House does what he wants," shrugged Wilson. "I thought you knew that by now. I mean, he wouldn't have just gone without a good reason. Trust him. When he comes home, give him a lifetime supply of Clinic hours."

"He's already going to be leaving a few hundred behind in his will," laughed Cuddy. "All right. I'll trust you. You'd better be right."

* * *

"…and so after Dumbledore was killed, Harry, Ron, and I began looking for…the rest of the keys to defeating Voldemort. We tracked one down, fighting a few Death Eaters on the way; nothing major. Harry was put under the Cruciatus a few good times and other hexes were thrown at him—he also cast some pretty difficult magic. But nothing out of the ordinary." Hermione was glad the story was almost complete. It had taken ages to fully explain the concepts of Death Eaters, describe what had happened each year in school, clarify the Ministry's corruption and the mistakes they'd made, explain the press, give the backgrounds on a few important people in Harry's life, and to go through a few parts of magic in detail, particularly the Unforgivables. But the story was nearly complete.

"So after destroying the…thing, exactly a month ago, Harry sat back for a moment, and then, without warning collapsed. His heart rate sped up, and we raced him to Hogwarts, because if St. Mungo's ever got wind that Harry was sick, it'd be bad news. We think some Healers there are on Voldemort's side. So he's been this way for about a month now. We've had quite a few trustworthy Healers working on him…but they've no idea what's wrong." Hermione watched curiously as House suddenly stood up and took out a bottle of pills, taking two and beginning to pace.

"Foreman. Go into my big bag and take out the board."

"You actually brought that thing?" demanded Foreman.

"You still can't write on it, so don't bother asking." As Foreman stood, shaking his head, Hermione looked at House.

"Are you on a medicine?"

"You could say that," said House.

"He's addicted to painkillers," said Chase lightly. Cameron shot him a look from across the room.

"And _he's _addicted to hair-products," retorted House.

"I think he'll get along with Draco," said Hermione to Tonks.

"Which one?" joked Tonks. "Mean one or hair-conscious one?" Hermione gave her a loook. "All right, all right. But I actuallydoubt that," laughed Tonks. "Draco's mean, but he isn't witty by any stretch of the imagination."

"He _did_ find a way to let Death Eaters into the castle," said Hermione fairly.

"Luck," responded Tonks. Doctor Cameron watched the two of them with a slight frown.

"That—death eater person is going to be staying with us?" she asked worriedly.

"Oh, he's nothing to worry about," waved Tonks. "He's pretty stupid, if you can imagine. Also, there will always be a few extra people staying with you all."

"How big _is_ this house?" asked Cameron. Across the room, her boss was writing down symptoms on his whiteboard while consulting with Foreman. Without looking up, he yelled a reply.

"I'd say House is a bit larger than life, but who am I to know?"

Tonks grinned, and Chase, Cameron, and Hermione ignored him. "Well, it's a manor, so it's pretty large. But it is in the middle of London, so it doesn't look very big on the outside," Hermione answered.

"Hey," said Chase suddenly. "My cell phone's not working…"

"Mine wasn't working earlier," said Cameron, digging through her purse to find it.

"Oh, that," said Hermione complacently. "Muggle technology doesn't really work inside Hogwarts, because of all the magic. That's why we've got to move you."

"But it'll work in that other place?" asked Foreman thoughtfully.

"It may be a bit faulty," answered Tonks, "but it is in the middle of London. So, yes, it should work."

"Faulty?" echoed House, annoyed. "If an MRI or a CT scan is 'faulty,' our whole diagnosis will get screwed up."

"It'll work," said Tonks hastily. Suddenly there came a knock at the door. "Who is it?"

"Minerva."

"Come on in, Professor," said Hermione easily. The door opened.

"Hello, everyone. I am Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts. I would like to thank you all for coming, especially under such short notice. It really is urgent."

"_So urgent_ that we've been here all evening and still haven't met the patient," said House lightly in a mock-British accent.

"I assume you're Doctor House?" asked McGonagall, eyeing him disapprovingly.

"The one and only."

"It's lovely to meet you," she said stiffly. "The reason you haven't met the patient yet is that he had to be moved into a safe house, and we needed to locate the instructions to _get_ to the house so that you would be able to see it."

"You don't even know how to get there?" asked Foreman skeptically.

"It's the Secret-Keeper thing I told you about," said Hermione quickly. "Harry was the Secret Keeper after Dumbledore died, and nobody new can see the house unless he's told them."

"Moving on," said McGonagall sternly, "I simply wanted to express my thanks and also pass along a method of communicating to Order members." She handed House, Cameron, Chase, and Foreman each a large gold coin, smiling thinly at Hermione.

"There is a directory at Headquarters of Order members and their numbers. If you need someone, move the numbers on your coin to match his or her number."

"Thank you," smiled Cameron.

"Now, if you need anything, just talk to the Order member who is at Grimmauld Place at the time. They can arrange to bring you all into Muggle London or Diagon Alley—that's where you can buy Magical things. Now, I'm very sorry to do this to you, but we must ask you to not go out on your own. Your lives are at stake."

"Remind me why we took this case?" muttered Chase to Foreman, who nodded in agreement.

* * *

Later that evening, the six divided up into the two Heads' dormitories. Cameron, Hermione, and Tonks slept in one and the men in the other.

"So…Tonks," began Cameron curiously after they all had been talking awhile. "I surmise that you're dating that man? Lupin, was his name?"

"Yep," replied Tonks, smiling. "We actually are married, we did it spur of the moment at the beginning of summer."

"It was so romantic," sighed Hermione. "Do you have a boyfriend? Or a husband?" she asked Cameron, who sighed loudly.

"No."

"Any interest in your fellow doctors?" asked Tonks teasingly.

"Well…I've kind of liked House before. But…I don't think it could work out, I guess. I really care about him, but maybe it wasn't meant to be."

"Did you two ever try dating?" pressed Hermione.

"House—isn't very open to ever loving again. Or relationships in general."

"Sounds like Remus—before. Two of his best friends had died, one had betrayed them. And—he has this condition. He never thought anyone would have him, so he hadn't been open to the prospect of love for years."

"Really? Does the age difference ever bother you?" asked Cameron thoughtfully.

"Not anymore," laughed Tonks. "It was one of his main reasons for refusing me, though. We actually dated for several months and then he broke up with me…after his best friend died. We separated for a year…it was the worst year of my life."

"So how did you get back together?"

"Well, it was the night Dumbledore died, to tell you the truth. Bill Weasley—he's Ginny's brother—she was the redhead—and anyway, he was attacked by a werewolf who wasn't transformed. Scars all over his face, we didn't know if he'd make it. Anyway, he had been extremely handsome. And was engaged to this beautiful, beautiful French girl, Fleur. Molly Weasley, his mother, had never gotten along with the girl. Anyway, she was looking over Bill right after he'd been bitten, and Fleur comes into the hospital wing. Molly thought she wouldn't want to marry him because of his looks, and she basically gave Molly the most forceful lecture on true love I've ever heard. Remus and I were sitting there, and I turned on him."

"Bet he loved that," laughed Cameron. "But I mean, it's different, I guess. Remus seemed so nice. House is—so apathetic."

"He kind of reminded me of a good-natured Snape or something," confessed Hermione. She then turned to Doctor Cameron.

"I think you should go for it."

"I have, Hermione; it isn't that easy." She then smiled painfully. "So… is there anything going on between you and Harry?"

Hermione chuckled. "No," she replied earnestly. "Though the press did have a field day with that notion a few years back…. No, Harry and I have always just been best friends. He and Ginny are in love. I, unfortunately, am with the bottomless pit otherwise known as Ron Weasley," she joked. Cameron grinned.

"He's your other best friend, right?" Hermione nodded. Then she paused for a moment.

"Do you get odd cases often? I mean, it definitely looked like you all do, and if I'm right you're quite good at solving them…but do you think you can find out what's wrong with Harry?" Cameron closed her eyes slowly before answering in a would-be cheerful voice.

"We've got the latest technology on our hands and I'm working with extremely bright doctors. And, yes, we've saved a good number of people. The only thing different about this case is the whole element of magic, but that shouldn't pose a problem if it's really a normal illness."

"You're quite accomplished at evading questions," said Tonks wryly. Cameron frowned.

"I'm not going to make a situation seem hopeless when we haven't even looked at the patient," countered Cameron, annoyed. She took a deep breath before falling into a nervous sleep, wondering what they were doing by coming into this world and trying to heal its savior.

Dfsdfsafds

Meanwhile, in the dorm across the hall, an entirely different conversation was ensuing.

"It's weird that this is a school," muttered Foreman as he examined the window and tapped on it lightly. "Did you see those pictures on our way up? They moved!"

"Yeah," said Chase contemplatively. "But the people seem weird. Different. I mean, there are a lot more of us in the world and here they are acting as if we're some sort of rarity, calling us… muggles, was it?"

"Yeah," said Foreman, shaking his head. "Now we're being prejudiced against because we can't do _magic._" Chase raised his eyebrows.

"Listen up," said House suddenly.

"What's up?" asked Foreman, looking at House quizzically as he stood up from his bed.

"I have a feeling they're not going to let us back in here," he said, looking at the ceiling thoughtfully. "In the school. Foreman, Chase. I need you to find this kid's dormitory—Harry Potter. Also check out some classrooms, possibly the kitchens. Take some samples of anything unusual."

Foreman and Chase exchanged a glance. "Can Cameron come with us?" whined Chase. "Just because she's a girl doesn't mean that—"

"No," said House. "Just the two of you. Lighten up; it must be at least an hour after curfew. What could possibly go wrong?"

* * *

A/N: Hey, thanks so much for the interest/reviewing! I'm enjoying writing this, to say the least. Please just keep reviewing, tell me what you think, and any ideas or opinions you might have would be appreciated. Thanks! The next update should be in a day or two. 


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I don't own HP or House, and please review!

* * *

And so it was, at ten to midnight, that Doctors Chase and Foreman slipped into the heart of nighttime Hogwarts—complete with moving staircases, ghosts, talking portraits, and a very grumpy caretaker.

"Chase," hissed Foreman as the two made their way past the third floor corridor which had once housed a three-headed dog named Fluffy. "Come on…I think that the dorm is this way."

"No—that knight picture said that Harry Potter's old 'house' was up a few floors, not down!" argued Chase, squinting through the pitch dark.

"Shut up!"

"No! I am positive that it was in a _tower_, not the dungeons!"

"No, I mean somebody's coming!" Chase's eyes widened as Foreman grabbed him and they both shrank into the shadows. They watched with trepidation as a shadow slunk into the corridor.

"It's a cat," said Foreman, letting out a breath as the cat took in their appearance appraisingly before yowling loudly.

"Uh…I'm not so sure that's a good thing right now. Let's get out of here."

"Good idea," agreed Foreman. With that, the two stood up again and tip-toed to the nearest staircase.

"These damn things!" cursed Chase as it began moving. "What floor is it taking us to?" he whispered. Foreman shrugged, squinting thoughtfully through the darkness.

"It looks like we're on… the seventh floor," began Foreman when the staircases came to a halt.

"That's the floor!" exclaimed Chase. "Griffin doors are up here or something. According to the knight, of course." Foreman rolled his eyes.

"You know, he could've been lying…."

"Because everybody lies," grinned Chase.

"Who are you, House?"

Chase ignored him. "Well, let's see you come up with something better. The dormitories are supposedly behind the portrait of a 'fat lady.' Have you seen one?"

"I haven't _seen _anything. There's not a light on in this entire—ah!" screamed Foreman, running head-on into a large figure.

"Who are you?" gasped the teenage boy, backing up slowly. "Are you a Death Eater? Because I'll fight you! You'll have to kill me before I let you walk into the Gryffindor tower!"

"Mister Creevey," came a silky voice from behind Chase and Foreman, "I would gladly arrange that. Unfortunately, I've been given a rather tedious task of Muggle-sitting, and I fear that I shall have to Obliviate you." Colin Creevey squinted through the darkness, mouth opening and closing in fear.

"Snape!" he squeaked. "You—you don't scare me! I'll fight you! Expelliarmus!" he all but shouted. Snape waved his wand lazily and the disarming spell shot back at Colin, who was thrown against a wall.

"Mr. Creevey—if you would be so kind, what is the password to the Gryffindor tower?" The boy shook his head defiantly, now able to make out the faces of the two men next to Snape.

"I'll never tell! Who are they? New recruits?" he asked venomously. Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Since I'm obliviating you… they're Muggles. Doctors. I've no inkling as to what they're doing mulling around the castle at night. What, might I ask, are _you_ doing, Creevey? Potter's not here! Why do you need the camera?"

"I was going to take pictures of the first night back at school—and how it's different, now that the war's going on," said the boy, looking at Chase and Foreman suspiciously. "What are Muggle doctors doing here?" As Snape answered the student and interrogated him about Gryffindor's password, Chase and Foreman exchanged a glance. They needed to do this on their own—without any magical people tailing them or hiding evidence.

After a few minutes, Snape raised his wand at Colin and said, "Obliviate!" A beam of red light shot out of his wand and made contact with Colin, who suddenly was sporting a very dazed expression. "Imperio. Mr. Creevey, please escort us back to your common room." Chase and Foreman watched, perplexed, as Colin stood up and began walking. They had both heard about the curse earlier today from Hermione, but seeing it work was a very weird experience.

Quickly, Colin reached the portrait of a fat woman in a pink dress. "Harry's revenge," he muttered, and the portrait swung open.

"Go back to bed, Mr. Creevey." And as Colin trotted across the red and gold common room, reaching the stairs, a voice sounded from the armchairs near the fire, and Snape collapsed.

"I've wanted to do that for years," smiled a slightly-overweight boy sitting in a red armchair. "Name's Neville. Who are you people?" Foreman and Chase exchanged a weary glance.

"Would it be possible for you to—er—let us be for awhile? We're not—what are they called? Death Eaters—not them. We just need to collect a few samples and we'll be on our way." Neville squinted at Foreman and Chase suspiciously.

"Why were you with Snape? I don't trust him."

"And neither do we," said Foreman testily. "Listen, kid, we're just doing our jobs…."

"Where are your wands? Give them to me, and I'll leave you alone."

Chase sighed and Foreman rolled his eyes. "Listen, we don't have wands with us."

"Whatever." He then looked over the two for a moment. "_You're_ holding an Order coin," said Neville, nodding at Foreman. Foreman glanced down at his hands and realized that he was indeed still clutching the golden coin given to him by McGonagall.

"What's it to you?" demanded Chase defensively.

"Hold on," said Neville cautiously. "Relax. We're on the same side…I can tell you're not from around here, so I can only assume that the Order brought you in—there's no other way you'd have that coin. So I'll leave you alone. I'm going to bed—put that in your pocket, you don't want the wrong people seeing it," he advised as he stood up. Before retreating to the staircase, he kicked Snape viciously.

"There—he should be out cold for at least another thirty minutes. Cheerio."

"This is insane. Absolutely insane," hissed Foreman as Neville Longbottom walked upstairs. "Have you seen this magic do anything good at all? Every time it's been used people have been knocked out or their brains have been screwed with!"

"Well, it did help us with our luggage," responded Chase fairly. "But I know what you mean. I would almost rather be doing Clinic duty," he said sourly.

"Hey—maybe we'll wake up and this will all be a big dream," said Foreman, sighing. "All right. Let's start taking samples."

* * *

Miles away, the savior of the wizarding world opened his eyes.

"Harry!" gasped Ginny, who had been watching him as she daydreamed. "Oh, Merlin… Harry, can you hear me?" Harry Potter looked up at his girlfriend in a panic.

"G-Ginny… I need to—He's going to…." He shuddered as Ginny grabbed his hand.

"It's all right, Harry, you're safe…shh… calm down, love. Professor! You need to get in here!" she called out of the room. She heard footsteps running up the stairs and breathed quickly as she tried to calm Harry, who was perspiring and attempting to get up.

"What's the matter—" began Lupin, rushing into the room. "Ah. Harry, can you hear me?" he asked, kneeling at Harry's bedside.

"Voldemort," whispered Harry despairingly. "He—knows…knows I'm sick. Wormtail—how… where…?"

"You're in Grimmauld Place, Harry," said Ginny, stroking his hair worriedly. "You've been out for a month. Do you—do you feel all right?"

"No," said Harry, closing his eyes. "Something's wrong with me. A month? But what about—"

"Harry, everything is under control. Don't worry about anything right now. Lie down, Harry."

"Can't—I need to warn—"

"Harry, who do you need to warn?"

"Dumbledore!" gasped Harry, wrenching himself from Lupin's grip. "Malfoy is going to kill—" Ginny looked at Lupin, frightened.

"What is he doing?" she demanded.

"Dumbledore—stop! We can't—we can't go…"

"What do we do?" demanded Ginny. "Should we call the school? Get that doctor?"

"Draco!" shouted Lupin as he restrained Harry.

"What's all the bloody fuss about?" Malfoy asked, yawning, as he entered the room.

"Go Floo your Aunt Andromeda—tell her we need her and Ted, now!" Lupin then turned to Ginny. "Get to the school, Ginny, and tell Minerva that we need House and his doctors immediately. Tell her that once Andy and Ted make it over, I'll go and find Bill and Fleur—they have the key to the Gringotts vault Harry's paper is in, the paper that will tell House how to get here… go!" he all but shouted, beginning to sweat with the closeness to the full moon mixed with fear for Harry.

A bored-looking Draco and a white-faced Ginny nodded and ran downstairs into the kitchen. Remus held his breath as Harry suddenly stopped struggling and threw himself backwards, clutching his scar.

"Oh God, Harry…please stay with me…Harry, it's all right. You're safe here. Clear your mind," he whispered, terrified. He then looked up desperately. "James…Lil…Sirius…I'm trying, I am…where are you? We need him, we love him." A moment later, he heard two people thundering up the stairs. Remus jumped up.

"Healers Tonks!" he exclaimed. "Please—he woke up, and I think he's having delusions…now he says his scar hurts—that's only ever happened when Voldemort was connected with him!" Andromeda Tonks listened to Remus as she pulled on a lab jacket and felt for Harry's pulse.

"Remus, hand me the magenta potion in my bag, please," said Ted Tonks as he examined Harry. Remus nodded and pulled it out, handing it to Tonks, who poured it into a syringe and injected it into Harry's arm. Harry quivered for a moment and then fell still.

"That was a pain-reliever," explained Tonks to Lupin, who nodded.

"His blood pressure's gone down," said Andromeda worriedly, waving her wand over Harry's heart and muttering an incantation under her breath. "Whatever this disease is—it's mutated. I think it's possible that Harry's had it for years, but his magic has kept it down. Whatever he did before he fell into the first coma must have depleted his magical immune system."

"But his MIS looks completely normal," argued her husband, brow furrowed. "His heart rate is still to high," he frowned. "He seems relatively stable at the moment, though, besides that."

"Yes, his blood pressure is almost normal," Andromeda agreed. She heaved a sigh and looked at Lupin—her new son-in-law—and her husband wearily. "I hope we can save him."

"Don't we all?" chuckled Remus dryly.

"Mmm," Ted acquiesced. "Remus, have you got your wolfsbane for tomorrow?" Remus nodded, looking paler than ever.

"I do—but now that Harry's all right, I've got to run. I need to get the Secret Keeper statement from Bill. Will the two of you stay with Harry for the time being?"

"Of course we will," smiled Andromeda. "You take care, Remus. I think I'll have a little chat with my nephew while we're here…." Remus smiled.

"Good luck with that. Oh, and Nymphadora might be coming over tonight with the doctors. She's at Hogwarts right now."

"Wonderful," smiled Ted. "She never has time for us anymore, so it'll be nice to catch up, even though the circumstances are pretty bleak." Remus, who took this as a passive-aggressive lashing from his new father-in-law, merely nodded, ruffled Harry's hair, and hurried downstairs.

* * *

At Hogwarts, Chase and Foreman were finished with the Gryffindor tower and were making their way through the corridors, looking for any place that seemed a reasonable place for Harry to have spent time. As they walked blindly through a corridor on the second floor, Chase suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" asked Foreman, annoyed, as he ran into Chase.

"Someone's coming again," groaned Chase as two figures approached.

"Man, I would hate to go to this school," said Foreman under his breath. "How do kids sneak out at night?"

"Shh… come on, let's go back here!"

The approaching people were becoming clearer by the second, and their voices seemed panicked but familiar.

"So Remus is getting the key from Bill? Are you sure?"

"Yes! Positive."

"Are you sure Mr. Potter is all right?"

"Yes—no—I don't know! He was having delusions when I left. It was terrifying." Chase and Foreman stopped short and exchanged a glance.

"Do you see—stop! Why on earth are you out of bed?" exclaimed McGonagall as she and Ginny Weasley approached.

"Er—we're not students," said Chase hesitantly.

"Doctor Chase? Doctor Foreman?" asked McGonagall unbelievingly.

"Yeah—what's up? Do we need to leave?" asked Foreman.

"Don't you know the safety hazards in being out alone? This is a school full of magic! You're defenseless!"

"I wouldn't say defenseless," said Foreman, frowning. "I've had my fair share of conflict in my life and I know—"

"Be as that may," said McGonagall, cutting him off abruptly, "you all need to be careful. Are the other doctors still in the Heads' rooms?"

"As far as we know," answered Chase.

"Good. There's been a change—Harry's resurfaced from his coma. Ginny, would you like to tell them the story as we walk back to the Heads' dormitory?" The red-head nodded glumly and the group took off.

"I was sitting by him, and suddenly his eyes opened and he began to talk. He seemed perfectly normal for a moment, but then all of the sudden he changed. He began talking about a dream, saying Voldemort was after him…" Ginny paused, noting the oddity in two Muggles not flinching at Voldemort's name. "Then he changed again, flailing and saying he needed to warn Dumbledore. You know, our old Headmaster."

"The one who was killed?" asked Foreman thoughtfully.

"Yeah," said Ginny, shooting a glance at McGonagall. Then she looked back at the Muggle doctors. "What are you all holding?" Chase and Foreman looked at each other guiltily.

"Just a few samples," said Chase hastily. "We need to make sure that this isn't an— environmental problem or something."

"I see," said McGonagall. She was then quiet for a moment. "Listen. I really need your word that you all will listen to what we tell you; obey our rules. They all are for your safety and the safety of those around you. If you do what we tell you, you will not be in any life-threatening situations." Chase raised his eyebrows.

"That a guarantee?"

"I cannot guarantee anything. But that, Sir, is the closest I am going to get." Chase nodded slowly.

"Well I can't promise anything. Doctor Cameron, she's bad news. Doesn't listen to authority."

"Not at all," agreed Foreman, a slight grin playing at his lips. "She's the biggest problem at the Hospital. Everyone thinks she should go—but House won't fire her. We think there's something going on between them," he said in a very sincere voice.

"But no guarantees," grinned Chase.

"All right, then. Here we are." She said the password and the portrait swung open, allowing the four into the Head Common Room. "Now, will one of you go wake Doctor House? And Ginny, please go fetch Miss Granger, Mrs. Lupin, and Doctor Cameron." Ginny nodded, and Foreman began walking towards the staircase. "And Miss Weasley, just to warn you, your parents and several brothers may stay at Grimmauld Place tonight. I haven't spoken with any of them, but I am sure they are very concerned over Harry." Ginny nodded.

"Mum's going to try and persuade me to come home. I suppose I should, what with Harry sick and all—and school isn't the same, anyway." McGonagall nodded understandingly.

"Sometimes I wonder what's keeping me here," she said quietly, looking around the Common Room. Ginny smiled and headed up the girls' staircase, suddenly overcome with the desire to cry. She wiped her eyes as she reached the door and opened it.

"Tonks!" she whispered, pushing her slightly. "'Mione! Doctor Cameron!"

"Go away," groaned Tonks.

"No. Something happened to Harry—you all need to get up! We're moving the doctors."

"What?" asked Cameron sleepily, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Come on. We're leaving Hogwarts. Harry changed. Everyone, get up."

"Oh my goodness, Ginny," gasped Hermione suddenly, shooting up. "Is he okay? What's wrong?"

"He's fine," said Ginny tiredly. "He just woke up and all these changes are happening—just come on. Come downstairs as soon as you can. And don't worry about your luggage, Doctor; just wear something. The House Elves will bring the rest over." Hermione frowned, but restrained from saying something about cruelty towards House Elves, just as Cameron restrained from asking what on earth 'house elves' _were_.

"I'll meet you downstairs," said Ginny, yawning.

"No, I'm ready," said Hermione, pulling on a T-Shirt and jeans.

"Me too," said Tonks. "Is Remus with Harry?"

"No," said Ginny as Cameron dug through her suitcase for a shirt and some pants, "He went to get Bill so he could find the parchment of Harry's."

"It's a good thing we kept that," said Tonks quietly.

"No kidding," agreed Ginny.

"All right…I'm ready," said Cameron, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. Ginny led the way downstairs, where House, Foreman, Chase, and McGonagall were already sitting waiting.

"Remus and Bill haven't arrived yet," said McGonagall. "It may take awhile yet. So please make yourselves comfortable. Would anyone like anything to drink?"

"I'll take a coffee," said House seemingly totally alert already.

"Make it two," said Tonks, blinking and rubbing her eyes. "I've a feeling I won't be getting much sleep tonight."

"Three, please," added Cameron.

"Anyone else?" asked McGonagall. When nobody answered, she called out.

"Dobby!" A loud crack sounded and the doctors stared, perplexed, as a House Elf appeared out of thin air.

"Yes Professor? What is Dobby being able to do for you tonight?" He then spotted Ginny and Hermione. "Miz Wheezy! Harry Potter's good friends! Can Dobby be of service to you?"

"Three coffees, please," smiled McGonagall. And a tea for myself."

"Of course, Ms. Is Harry Potter getting better, Ms. Professor?"

"We're not sure yet, Dobby," said Hermione kindly. "But I'm sure he'd love to know that you asked about him." Dobby nodded eagerly and disappeared.

"What the hell was that thing?" demanded House not a second later.

"A house elf," said Hermione in a disapproving tone. "Wizards and Witches practice a type of slavery over them." Ginny rolled her eyes. "It's horrid."

"And that greasy man implied _we_ were the barbaric ones," commented House offhandedly.

"There are certain practices in which the Wizarding world is far behind Muggles," explained Hermione with earnest, "especially social issues. Why, Purebloods in this world are all inter-related."

"Eew," said Chase. "You mean they marry people in their family?"

"_No_," said House, rolling his eyes, "Inter-related means they have no familial ties whatsoever." Chase sighed, annoyed, right as Dobby reappeared with a platter of steaming mugs.

"Here you is, Professor; Mrs. Lupin—Miss; Sir."

"God, actually," corrected House.

"Here we go again," muttered Cameron, sipping her coffee carefully. The house elf looked between the two with some confusion but then seemed to think better of it.

"Tell Harry Potter that I is knitting him socks to help him get better," said Dobby with excitement.

"Thanks, Dobby, I know he'll appreciate that," said Hermione, smiling. Dobby beamed and then was gone with a loud crack. The room fell silent for a moment before House began interrogating the witches sitting with him.

"So—what exactly are all of your relationships with Harry? How long have you known him, that sort of thing."

"Well," began Hermione quickly, "I've been best friends with him since our First year—I believe it's the equivalent of sixth grade in the United States?" House nodded slowly.

"And my brother is Harry's other best friend," said Ginny. "He's spent quite a few summers at our house. I'm a year younger than those three, and I recently dated Harry for a few months."

"But you broke up?" pressed Chase curiously.

"It was stupid," said Ginny, lowering her eyes slightly. "He didn't want me to be in any danger—"

"Sure he didn't," said House sarcastically. Ginny looked up at him angrily.

"You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know him!" she hissed, a fire blazing in her eyes.

"And what about you?" asked House, ignoring her. Cameron looked at Ginny sympathetically.

"I have been his Professor for six years," said McGonagall. "I also taught his parents and was his Head of House."

"And I'm his old godfather's second cousin," said Tonks, still not quite awake, "I have only known him for about two years."

"Old godfather?" asked Cameron.

"He died. A little over a year ago—one of the many emotional traumas the poor boy has suffered," said McGonagall sadly.

"Name some more of these experiences," said House, frowning. "What about before he came to school? Did he live in an orphanage?"

"No," said Hermione. "He lived with his Aunt and Uncle and cousin—"

"The person I talked to said he didn't have family," said House, frustrated.

"Well—I mean, they're Muggles, and they haven't acted like a family by any stretch of the imagination," began Ginny, but she was cut off by Foreman.

"So because they aren't magic, you don't count them as family?" he demanded. Ginny sighed and was about to explain, but a sharp knock sounded at the door.

"Who is it?" asked McGonagall, standing up worriedly.

"Remus and Bill."

"Wait," said Tonks quickly, "The question. Remus, what was your first pet's name?"

"Tonks, do we really have to—"

"Yes! Answer the question."

"Rascal," said Remus, clearly annoyed.

"Bill," began Ginny, "Which sibling's leg did you break?"

"George—and it was an accident!"

"Let them in," said Ginny. The portrait swung open and Remus Lupin walked through it, Bill Weasley close behind. Ginny ran up to embrace her older brother, and Tonks squeezed her husband's hand.

"All right. Here's the parchment," said Bill, digging through his pocket and pulling it out. He handed it to Cameron, who was closest. "I'm Bill Weasley—I don't think we've met. I'm Ginny and Ron's brother."

"How many are there of you?" asked Foreman, noting that Bill had apparently broken the leg of another sibling once.

"Seven," answered Ginny, grinning. "I'm the only girl, and the youngest. Bill, this is Doctor Cameron." She smiled.

"Allison," she said, taking in Bill's appearance curiously. He had deep scars all over his face—but she could tell he was still a handsome man, and he wore a fanged earring. His long red hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

"Nice to meet you," smiled Bill, nodding. "And you are—?"

"Robert Chase. This is Eric Foreman—and—"

"I'm Doctor House," said House, limping towards Bill and shaking his hand.

"All right, everyone," said Lupin. "You all need to memorize this address. We're going to go through a fireplace. When you say the name of the place we're going to—Number 12, Grimmauld Place—think of the address or else you'll get lost. And we don't want that happening. Any questions?"

"Did you say a fireplace?" asked Chase politely. Hermione laughed.

"It's kind of nerve-wracking the first time," she admitted. "But it's not bad. You might get a bit dizzy…just don't get lost, and say the address very clearly. Understand?" Everyone nodded despite several blank looks.

McGonagall reached for some Floo powder and threw it into the fireplace, in which a small flame was dwindling. It suddenly shot up and turned a bright, sparkly, lime green.

"We have to go into that fire?" asked Cameron nervously as she passed the address to Foreman.

"Here, some of us will go before and after you all. Professor, are you quite sure that the fireplaces are not being monitored?"

"I removed the surveillance on this room personally," said McGonagall in a business-like manner. "We will be fine for the time being." Hermione nodded, convinced.

"Walking into a fire," repeated Chase skeptically. "House help us."

* * *

**A/N**: Hey, sorry it took so long! Thank you to everyone who is reading this story. It's kind of weird still, but I hope you like it. PLEASE review. They honestly do help me update more quickly, because I'm more inspired to write. I only got a few last chapter but I had a lot of hits. So please review, pretty pretty please. Anyway, what would anyone think of a cross-over ship? I think it'd be really weird and hard to do, but hey, you never know. And next chapter should be more interesting.

So _please _review, and thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Enjoy the chapter, and review!

* * *

Draco Malfoy basked in the temporary quiet of Grimmauld Place. Upstairs, he knew, Potter was probably thrashing around clutching his scar—what else was new? His disowned Aunt and her Mudblood husband were currently sipping tea in Potter's room. Draco clutched the book he was reading and let out a sigh. He knew that for awhile now, he'd be sharing a house with four despicable Muggles. Not to mention, Weasleys were dropping in like hailstones, always taking him by surprise. The entire company of this blasted house could make Draco Malfoy cringe. If his father could see him, he would probably have a heart attack. _Well at least there would be plenty of Healers and Muggle doctors around,_ thought Draco wryly. He turned back to his book. 100 Household Objects Muggles Thrive On. Damn Lupin and McGonagall—they were going to let him continue schooling, bringing him his work from Hogwarts, but on one condition: he take Muggle Studies.

The entire situation was utterly ridiculous—but what could Draco do about it? He would much rather be hiding in comfort, cushioned into his solitude, reading about Muggles, than be locked up in Azkaban or in Voldemort's lair. Besides, they were going to make him take Muggle quizzes—in a house full of Muggles! He'd only have to hold his breath for a moment and blurt out the question and then get his answer and be gone. Easy.

Suddenly, he was thrown from his stupor as the fireplace began to glow bright green. A gust of flames popped up and little red-headed Weaslette, probably topping the list of people Draco did not want to talk to, landed and stepped out, dusting herself off. She seemed to be carrying herself differently, somehow, Draco pondered, watching her in the dim light. Maybe this was how she looked all the time now that her precious boyfriend hero was dying.

"Why so glum, Weaslette? A Potter-free world would be kind of nice…heroics are boring, wouldn't you agree?" Ginny jumped.

"Malfoy! You scared me." She frowned when Draco smirked. "Not like that…honestly…. Why do you have to hide in the bloody shadows? Left death-eater kiddie camp to become a stalker or something?" Draco frowned and was about to retort when the fireplace roared again. He sighed, exasperated, as he saw the next person pop out. _I was wrong…_this_ is the last person I would want to talk to._

"Ginny, hey. Have you called down Tonks' parents?"

"I just got here a moment ago, Hermione," said Ginny, somewhat annoyed.

"I'm leaving," announced Malfoy unnecessarily as the fireplace roared once more.

"Oh—Draco," said Hermione. "I didn't even see you there. Wait—you should meet the doctors. They're really wonderful, and—" She frowned as Draco huffed out of the room. "Well you have to meet them sometime!" On that note, Cameron appeared in a heap on the floor.

"Oh, dear," said Ginny, bending to help her up. "It's all right, I've heard that everyone does that their first time."

"Wow," said Cameron, standing up and rubbing her arm, which she'd landed on. "People actually like traveling that way?" But before someone could answer, Foreman was jerked out of the Floo, in a very similar manner as Cameron. Then came Chase, who, to everyone's surprise, didn't fall. He did look extremely shaken up, nonetheless.

"Oh no," said Cameron suddenly. "House! Will he be able to do that, with his leg?" Foreman shrugged.

"Maybe we can finally get rid of him," he joked. Cameron frowned, and everyone looked in anticipation as the Floo lit up once more. House came in with a bang—quite literally—and a loud curse. He managed to land upright, but his cane had scraped along the fireplace and had hit the floor loudly. He limped out, grimacing and immediately reaching for his Vicodin.

"House," began Cameron quickly, rushing towards him. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," said House loudly, glaring at her. She backed up, nodding, and right into Draco Malfoy, who had come back into the room to complain about all the noise.

"Whoa—watch where you're going," said Malfoy angrily. Cameron turned around, annoyed.

"Excuse me," she said, affronted. "How was I supposed to know you were walking into the room?" Hermione and Ginny exchanged a laughing glance at Draco's expression. He looked shocked that Muggles could be pretty.

"Oh. Er—right," he stuttered, unsure of how to treat her. "I mean—yeah. I just…you're a Muggle, so—can everyone please keep it down to a dull roar?" he finally said, sneering at Hermione and Ginny. "I'm trying to—do things. And I don't need all of you making noise."

"And who are you?" asked House, looking up from his leg, as Tonks and Lupin exited the fireplace in a quick succession.

"Draco Malfoy," said Draco self-importantly.

"They've never heard of you, Malfoy," smirked Ginny. "Does that upset you? Finally realizing that having a rich father isn't everything?" Foreman and House exchanged a glance.

"Listen to her, Chase," said Foreman.

"For the last time, I'm not rich!" exclaimed Chase heatedly. The room was quiet for a split second before Bill and McGonagall flooed in successively.

"What happened?" asked Bill curiously, looking around at all the tense faces.

"Nothing," answered Hermione briskly. "Come on, everyone, we need to go see Harry."

"Not so fast," said Remus quickly. "I think that only Doctor House, his team, and the Healers Tonks should be in there right now. We can't have too many people at a time." Hermione nodded resignedly.

"You're right, Professor."

"I'm not your professor, anymore, Hermione."

"Sorry. Remus. Come on, Ginny, let's go down to the kitchen and grab a bite. Anyone with us?"

"Me," said Tonks immediately.

"And me," added Bill.

"I'll escort the doctors upstairs," said McGonagall. "Remus, thank you for all you've done tonight. You may go on down with the rest of this lot." Lupin smiled wearily. "That goes for you, too, Mister Malfoy." Draco scowled at his ex-Professor.

"Right this way, Doctors," said McGonagall. House followed her, and his ducklings followed him, all looking at their surroundings with slightly shocked expressions.

"You said this is in London?" asked Chase as they were escorted through the front hall.

"Shhh!" hissed McGonagall. "Be very quiet on the stairs—you wouldn't want to wake something up." On this ominous note, Chase raised his eyebrows. When they reached the next landing, McGonagall spoke again.

"Sorry about that," she said, still quietly, "there's a portrait on the wall that likes to scream. And, yes, to answer your question, this house is indeed in London. It's quite old."

"It looks very—interesting," commented Cameron.

"Oh, you should have seen it two years ago. This house was abandoned for a very long time. It belonged to Mr. Potter's godfather, Sirius Black. And, well, he came from a very old family, some of which still hold to old ideas; traditions… here we are."

The doctors walked into a medium-sized, well-lit bedroom, in which a teenaged boy was sleeping and two adults were whispering quietly.

"Minerva," said the woman eagerly. She had shoulder-length dark hair and big, blue eyes. She looked healthy—younger than she must have been, judging by the girl with pink hair being her daughter. The man next to her, her husband, stood up and held out a hand.

"Ted Tonks," he said, nodding towards House. House eyed the man and took his hand.

"Greg House."

"Ah…wonderful. You're the Muggle doctors, I surmise. Thanks for bringing them, Minerva, lovely to see you again. This is my wife, Andromeda," he directed towards the Muggles. The woman smiled.

"Nice to meet you," she said. Close-up, Andromeda looked pale and somewhat worn.

"You too," said Cameron. "I'm Allison Cameron. This is Robert Chase, and this is Eric Foreman." Andromeda and Ted shook hands with each of them.

"And _this_," said Andromeda, turning towards Harry Potter, "is our patient. He's asleep right now."

"Asleep?" asked Doctor House, feigning skepticism. "I would call it an acute case of semi-conscious—"

"Please excuse him," said Foreman, stepping towards Harry's bedside. He looked over the patient thoughtfully.

"We'll need to give a few of you an overview on how magic works with the Immune system—show you some diagrams, and all. We won't be staying here, but we'll be reachable if you need to consult or anything," said Ted worriedly. "And the other of us can give a briefing on how he's been for the past week—fluctuations, etc. Hopefully we'll be able to work together and get this case finished as soon as possible…"

"Because as long as we have each other, we can do _anything_," said House, rolling his eyes. "You need to stop watching Growing Pains."

"What?" asked Andromeda, confused.

"A show," said Ted shortly. "Muggle thing. Generally, witches and wizards don't familiarize themselves with Muggle technology," he said to House, a slight edge to his voice.

"We're going to need some of our 'muggle' devices," House plowed on, ignoring Ted Tonks. "Foreman, you are to provide someone with a list. We need them as soon as possible, and we need a few rooms to work with."

"This entire floor has been cleared out for you all," said McGonagall. Your bedrooms are on the end of the hall, and there are a few empty rooms here to use as lab rooms. One room is equipped with some Wizarding medical technology; the other rooms have been…wired… into the Muggle electricity system." She turned to Foreman. "You can give your list to Remus Lupin. He's downstairs." Foreman nodded and exited the room. "And I will be going. I need to get back up to the school as soon as possible. If you need me, the directory is downstairs—Draco or Remus should know where it is."

"Thank you, Minerva," said Andromeda appreciatively. She nodded and left the room briskly.

"All right. I'll bring one or two of you inside and explain the magical immune system and the technology, and Ted can brief the other on Harry's condition for the past two weeks."

"Cameron," ordered House, "Immunologist, Magical Immune System… you're with her. And I'll go with you, too, to make sure you don't screw up the usage of the machines." Cameron rolled her eyes. "Chase, you're with him." Chase nodded.

"All right then," smiled Andromeda. "Come along. This shouldn't take up too much of your time."

* * *

Downstairs, the gathering was getting quite large, to say the least. The Weasley twins, Fleur, Ron, and Mrs. Weasley had all arrived within a few minutes of each other, each looking for a different person. And while Foreman keyed in Lupin on the machines they would need in another room, Mrs. Weasley berated Fred and George for turning the Burrow into a swamp, Bill and Fleur kissed each other lovingly, and Tonks teased the four younger teenagers by starting up a game of spin the bottle, which was earning her quite a few death glares.

But, alas, all things—even moments of chaotic escape from reality—must end. And so it was that one Severus Snape suddenly marched into the kitchen, positively fuming.

"WHERE ARE THOSE BLOODY MUGGLES?" he demanded, silencing the kitchen at once.

"Sev, old boy!" cried out Fred, not missing a beat.

"Long time, no see!" boomed George in agreement. The glare Snape threw at them could have easily made a first year collapse.

"Where are the Muggles?" he repeated.

"_You_ were supposed to be watching them," Tonks informed him icily.

"And why do you want to know, anyway? I know they escaped, but I didn't think you'd care," said Ginny, meeting his gaze boldly.

"Just because I am no longer your Professor," began Snape, his voice somehow as cool as Ginny's but flaming at the same time, "does not, under _any_ circumstances, give you blood-traitor brats license to mock me," he said, stepping towards Ginny threateningly.

"Severus, get away from her," said Bill harshly, glaring at Snape.

"It would be wise never to threaten a girl with four angry brothers in the same room," said Lupin, coming into the room with Foreman a moment later. Tonks chuckled dryly.

"You!" exclaimed Snape, turning immediately to Foreman. "You are going to pay. Nobody knocks me out and expects to get away—" He was already lifting his wand.

"Severus!" exclaimed Lupin, grabbing his arm. "What in the name of Merlin are you doing?"

"The Muggles are in cohorts with Longbottom," growled Snape as Lupin and Bill restrained him.

"_Neville_ Longbottom?" asked Hermione a bit incredulously.

"Yes! The damn boy shot a stunner at me when my back was turned! And the Muggles were in on it!" Ginny looked at Hermione gleefully. Hermione looked torn between excitement and shock at the show of disobedience towards an old Professor.

"What are you going on about?" asked Foreman, acting as if Snape was crazy (which wasn't terribly difficult to do).

"I think he's had a bit too much Firewhiskey," said George decisively. Snape glared at him.

* * *

Wilson sat in his office, eating a TV dinner in silence. It certainly was boring without House and the ducklings around bickering and bantering. _Now I know the appeal of General Hospital,_ he thought wearily. Suddenly, the door opened. Wilson smiled and gestured towards the couch.

"Have a seat."

"Do you think we need a PA system around here?" asked Cuddy, not bothering to sit. She closed the office door and paced around the room thoughtfully. "I can call someone; we should really get one installed. Or maybe we need—"

"Lisa," said Wilson, putting down his fork. "I know you're upset. But we can't solve this by going around and busying ourselves. I'm sure House, Foreman, Chase, and Cameron are all fine. Thoughtless, yes, but fine."

"I know, I know," said Cuddy, groaning loudly and sitting. "I wish Stacy was here, what if something is wrong?"

"You don't wish Stacy was here," said Wilson, sighing. "You have no control over this situation and you're scared. But it hasn't even been a full day. And I'm sure they're sleeping. It's past midnight in the UK."

"They had no right to do this," said Cuddy, sitting down roughly. "None. I've half a mind to fire him right now. The lack of judgment! I mean, you know this is what's gotten him fired form his four other jobs already…"

"Cuddy, you know what got him fired. And while he is showing a lack of judgment, give him some time. I know you trust him."

"Oh, I know," Cuddy said with exasperation. "I know. Here—why don't we page him one more time?"

* * *

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. Andromeda Tonks, who had just finished explaining the Magical Immune System and a few other differences between Magic people and Muggles, especially in the nervous system, jumped in alarm as House's beeper went off.

"Oh, damn," said House under his breath, taking out his beeper. He looked up at Cameron. "Cuddy."

"Oh, gosh. Do you think she's mad?" House paused thoughtfully.

"I couldn't say. But you'll be able to in a moment. Cameron, call Cuddy back while Healer Tonks tells me about these Magical Medical Machines." Cameron's jaw dropped.

"You want _me_ to call Cuddy?" she demanded.

"That's what I said. Go along—make the call from another room so I can get a full explanation." Cameron glared at her boss for a moment and then turned on her heel and into the patient's room.

She sat down about a foot from his bedside and picked up her cell phone wearily. After taking a deep breath, she dialed the number.

* * *

"House?" demanded Cuddy, picking up the phone the moment it rang. Wilson pressed the button to put it on Speaker Phone so that they both could hear.

"Actually, it's Allison."

"Cameron," said Cuddy slowly, adopting a sugary tone of voice, "Get House."

Cameron paused for a second. "He—is in another room. He says he's not taking calls right now."

"You're lying," said Wilson, amused.

"Okay, I'm stretching the truth," replied Cameron. "Listen, House feels terribly for leaving and all, but I promise the case is credible. And we're not going to get in legal trouble for it—there's no chance. And we would have gotten in touch earlier, but none of our electric devices were working."

"Then why didn't you find a place where you could use them?" demanded Cuddy.

"We just—didn't think about it. I'm sorry. Listen, I just wanted to check in. But it's kind of hectic over here and—"

"Where are you?" asked Cuddy sharply. "I want an address. And the name and credentials of the Hospital supervisor." Cameron squirmed in her seat.

"Um, I will ask House about it. I'm not really sure."

"What on earth do you mean?" yelled Cuddy. Cameron cut her off.

"You don't understand the circumstances!"

"Try me!"

"I _can't_!"

"Lisa…Allison…calm down. Let's talk about this rationally. Are you sure you can't get House?"

"I'm pretty positive," said Cameron, standing up and peering out the door. Her boss, in the other room, popped yet another Vicodin. "I can go get Foreman or Chase, maybe—"

"No!" said Cuddy immediately.

"Why not?" whispered Wilson.

"It'll be easier to get one to break," hissed back Cuddy, covering the receiver.

"Are you still there?" asked Cameron.

"Yes, yes, we're here. And we're ready to talk this through with you. Now, Dr. Cameron. Allison. Do you feel comfortable? Tell me the truth."

"Comfortable, as in this conversation?" asked Cameron, thinking quickly on her feet.

"No, in the situation. The patient, your surroundings…."

"Well, yes—it's pretty normal, all things into consideration…"

"What things? What's odd about this case?"

"Well it's in another country, for one thing, obviously."

"Obviously," said Cuddy tolerantly. "What else?"

"Well, not much else really…" Running out of options, she feigned a coughing fit.

"Oh come on, Cameron," said Wilson, speaking up. "Just tell us where you are. It's our job. We need to know."

"Then why don't you come and find out?" came a voice from the door.

"House!" exclaimed Cameron thankfully.

"House? House! What in the name of God do you think you're doing?" yelled Cuddy angrily.

"What time is it over there?" asked Wilson. House frowned.

"One-thirty. Cameron, go play with your toys. It's time for grown-up discussion." Cameron rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, glad to be away from the hot-spot. As soon as she was gone, House turned back to the phone.

"All right. This is, I'll admit, the strangest case I've ever taken on."

"How come? Is it some rare disease?" asked Cuddy curiously. "And what hospital are you in? Cameron wouldn't give me an address."

"This is a House-call. Both literally and figuratively," House responded.

"Very witty," said Wilson sarcastically. "So you're in someone's house?"

"Yep."

"House, you of all people know that we can't just do things like that!" said Cuddy, shaking her head. "You need to come home."

"I need to take this case," corrected House.

"Why? Let someone else do it! What if we get into legal trouble? This is serious, Greg."

"This house was Sirius's."

"What?"

"Nothing. Cuddy, this case is important. You know that I, _of all people_, would not take a case that seemed stupid, or was an overreaction, or even a favor. This case is a big deal. Can you trust my judgment?"

"No. I mean—I don't know. House, can they pay for me to go over there and check it out?"

"Would it really make you feel better?"

"Much," replied Cuddy.

"Fine. I'll have these people wire over a plane ticket." Cuddy and Wilson exchanged a glance.

"Are you treating rich people?" she asked, annoyed.

"The ticket will be in your fax within the hour," said House. "Relax. Now, you don't have any hidden heart conditions we need to know about—? Oh, that's right, I read your file. I'll see you tomorrow." With that, House hung up the phone on a very perplexed Wilson and Cuddy.

* * *

When House arrived downstairs, the scene he stumbled upon was quite strange. Everyone was gathered in some sort of meeting room or living room. Cameron, he noticed immediately, was sitting with the Tonks woman and red-headed twins, and they were all cracking up over some story. The annoying greasy man was in a corner brooding with the annoying blonde kid. Remus Lupin and a red-haired woman (presumably the mother of all the red-heads in the room) were talking on the couch. The red-head with the long hair was talking with a very beautiful woman in the corner. Hermione, Ginny, Foreman, Chase, and a final red-head were also deep in discussion. House cleared his throat loudly.

"House!" exclaimed Cameron. "What did Cuddy say?"

"We need a ticket from New Jersey to London tomorrow," House directed at Lupin, ignoring Cameron.

"No problem," said Lupin, standing up readily. "I can go get that ready tonight."

"You need to rest tonight, Remus," said the woman next to him disapprovingly. "By the way, I'm Molly Weasley. My son Bill and his wife Fleur, my sons Fred, George, and Ron, and my daughter, Ginny, whom I believe you've already met."

"Great," said House, the sarcasm in his voice undetectable. "So will someone please get a ticket faxed over?"

"I'll do it," yawned Tonks. "Go on back to your flat, Remus, you need to rest. I'll stay here tonight if the Weasleys decide to go home."

Remus nodded tiredly. "All right, everyone. I'm going. Thank you again, Doctor House—Cameron; Foreman; Chase." They all smiled and nodded as Remus stood up, kissed his wife good-bye, and left.

"It's late," said Hermione quite unnecessarily. "I'm going to go up to bed. Who else is staying here?"

"Well we're leaving," said Bill immediately.

"I think I'll go, too. I'll come back in the morning to make you breakfast, everyone," said Molly Weasley, smiling.

"Then we'll be back tomorrow morning," said Fred, George nodding.

"I'll go home with you, Mum," said Ron.

"And I'll stay here with Harry and Tonks and 'Mione," said Ginny sleepily. "I think I'm going to go up now. Goodnight, everyone." The house slowly cleared out, and finally just House, Cameron, Chase, and Foreman were left downstairs.

They walked into the kitchen, and House started in immediately. "Cuddy is going to come for an…inspection tomorrow."

"That will be interesting," commented Chase.

"No kidding," sighed Cameron. "I hope this place doesn't have ghosts or something," she added, getting a glass of water and helping herself to a piece of fudge sitting on a platter.

"There aren't ghosts," said Foreman confidently.

"Oh?" asked Chase, grinning. "I actually wouldn't be surprised…. Speaking of surprise, are you going to clue Cuddy in? Or let her be shocked?"

"Haven't decided," smirked House. "What do you think?"

"Tell her," said Cameron immediately.

"Don't," advised Foreman. "She won't believe you anyway."

"It would be better for her to at least expect something weird but not something—insane," argued Cameron.

"It's pretty insane to me," said Chase offhandedly.

"I'll think it over," House contemplated. "All right… let's meet at nine o'clock tomorrow in one of the lab rooms. The machinery should be here late tomorrow evening—around the time Cuddy arrives. So we'll just brainstorm in the morning, do some research, and we'll do tests the day after tomorrow. Everyone understand?" The ducklings nodded and started up the stairs.

Cameron got the chills as she entered her bedroom. _There must be a draft._ Her suitcase was already there, somehow, so she put on her nightclothes and got into bed, head beginning to throb. _This is going to be a long couple of weeks._

* * *

A/N: Okay, what did you think? Anyone know what's wrong with Cameron? Thanks for any reviews I got—they're mega-appreciated. If I get a lot of reviews and have a lot of motivation, I might update tomorrow, but if not, it'll be about a week before I'm home and able to write again. So… REVIEW!

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

* * *

Ginny Weasley had been a very light sleeper since her second year at Hogwarts. So it was not out of the ordinary that she was jarred awake in the middle of the night, still at Harry's bedside. But what was out of the ordinary was the muffled moaning coming from a nearby room. Ginny jumped up, heart pounding, and made a grab for her wand. She stole a glance at Harry, who still looked to be fast asleep. Ginny took a deep breath and pushed the remnants of her nightmare out of her mind for the time being. Cautious and alert, she slowly tip-toed from Harry's room and turned down the hall, towards the source of the moans.

They led her to one of the Doctors' bedrooms; she did not know which one. After hesitating for a moment, she pushed open the door. The woman doctor, Allison Cameron, was tossing and turning in her sleep. Ginny wondered if she was having nightmares as well. Yet as she watched her for a moment and her wand light fell upon Doctor Cameron, Ginny could tell that something was wrong. She flipped on the light switch and hurried towards the woman, who was drenched in sweat.

"Doctor Cameron!" she exclaimed worriedly. "Allison, wake up!" The doctor stirred in her sleep but didn't awaken. Ginny bit her lip and then felt Cameron's forehead. She was burning up. "Damn," cursed Ginny silently. She summoned a magical thermometer from downstairs and held it above Cameron. Not a moment later, it blinked "105.71." Ginny groaned, not exactly sure what to do. She was quite sure that since Witches and Wizards could need a trip to St. Mungo's with a temperature so high, Muggles surely could. Just as she was about to run and fetch Hermione, Doctors Foreman and Chase, who were sharing the room next door, walked into Cameron's bedroom.

"What's going on?" Chase asked curiously, blinking in the lit room.

"She's sick!" exclaimed Ginny, hoping that the illness wasn't picked up here or in Hogwarts. Magical illnesses in Muggles often proved fatal—as was true of the reverse quite often.

"What's wrong?" asked Foreman, frowning as he hurried over to Cameron's bedside.

"She has a fever of 105.7, and she's sweating and moaning in her sleep," explained Ginny.

"Would you get us a damp cloth?" asked Chase as he examined his colleague. "And some water," added Foreman. "And do you all have our kind of drugs perchance? Motrin or Tylenol? We need to bring down her fever."

"Uh…I don't know!" exclaimed Ginny. "I'll go get the cloth and water and wake Hermione; she might know what to do." She immediately exited the room, red hair flying behind her. "Hermione!" she could be heard calling as she raced down the stairs.

Foreman and Chase exchanged an uneasy glance. "I hate it when doctors get sick," complained Chase.

"I hope they have the drugs," said Foreman worriedly. "If not, and her fever keeps rising, she'll need to get to a hospital."

"What on earth could she possibly have?" wondered Chase. "And now, of all times."

"It was probably the airport," muttered Foreman. "They're always infested with germs."

"Or the school," agreed Chase. "They're usually infested as well."

"What's infested?" came an annoyed voice from the door.

"House!" exclaimed Foreman, looking up.

"That's my name," said House, his sarcasm seemingly magnified with the late hour.

"It's Cameron," said Chase as House approached the bedside. "She's got a high fever—we aren't sure what's wrong with her exactly, and they don't have any drugs here."

"Hmm," muttered House as he limped over and examined Cameron for a moment. He then looked at Chase and Foreman. "It's Cameron, guys. I'll bet fifty dollars that she has a stock of hand-sanitizer, bottled waters, and medicine in one of her bags." Chase raised his eyebrows.

"You're on," said Foreman. "I mean, she thought we'd be in a hospital or something, so why would she feel the need to—"

"But it _is_ Cameron," interjected Chase. "He has a point there."

Suddenly, Cameron jerked up in bed, panting. "Water," she said hoarsely, bringing a hand to her head.

"Allison—are you all right?" asked Chase worriedly. "We're getting you water, don't worry."

"I—don't—feel well," she whispered, shivering violently.

"What's her temperature?" demanded House.

"A few minutes ago it was 105.7," answered Foreman.

Both Cameron's and House's eyes widened. "I need—Tylenol," said Cameron, closing her eyes. "Are there more blankets here?" she whispered after a moment. Suddenly, Ginny raced into the room, Hermione on her heels.

"Here—here's the water and the cloth," she panted. Foreman grabbed the water and handed it to Cameron, and Chase hesitantly took the wet cloth and put it to her forehead.

"Stop, it's too cold," moaned Cameron, swatting Chase away.

"We need to break your fever," he argued as Cameron continued to shiver.

"I checked and we haven't any Muggle drugs in this house!" said Hermione quickly. "I'll ask Remus to get into a Muggle store later to grab some… I can't imagine what on earth she has! Do you think it's a virus, Doctor House?" House raised an eyebrow at Hermione, who was able to get out her entire few sentences in just three or so seconds.

"I think she has a fever," said House cuttingly.

"And it's going up," said Ginny worriedly, standing over Cameron. "Now it's 105.9. Do we need to bring her to St. Mungo's or something?"

"No, no. I'll just put on a Glamour Charm and run to the drugstore," said Hermione after a moment's thought.

"No, Hermione! You don't know what kinds of trackers could be out looking for you! It's too dangerous." Hermione sighed.

"I suppose you're right. What about sending out Tonks and one of these guys?" she asked, motioning towards the other doctors.

"That should work," said Ginny decisively. "I'll go wake Tonks, the poor thing."

Hermione followed Ginny out to get another blanket for Cameron, who had lain back down and was letting Chase cool her face off with the cloth.

"Well I'm going back to bed," said House indifferently.

"But what about Cameron?" asked Chase, looking at his boss with an annoyed expression.

"She has a virus, apparently," he shrugged.

"Cuddy is going to blow it out of proportion if she finds Cameron like this," said Foreman. House paused.

"You're right. And that's why you and that woman are going to go buy some Ibuprofen, and Cameron's fever is going to go down, and she's going to be nice and cheery for Doctor Cuddy." Cameron groaned.

"I can still hear you," she said, sounding upset.

"Is she crying?" asked Foreman incredulously.

"No," said Cameron, tears pouring down her face. "Just get away from me, all of you…. And find a way to bring my fever down…."

"Do you have any other symptoms?" demanded House. "Throat, head, ear aches? Backache? Is it the flu? Focus, Cameron. Is there anything else wrong?"

"I—I feel… sick…" whispered Cameron, pulling her blanket tighter. At that moment, the three witches ran into the room.

"I'm ready to go to the store," said Tonks sleepily, glancing at Cameron curiously. Her hair was a dark shade of violet for the occasion, and her clothing looked ruffled and messy.

"Foreman, go," said House. Foreman sighed.

"Let me go change," he said, exasperated.

"Hurry," called House as he left the room. He then turned to Hermione. "When will the equipment be here?"

"In a few hours," she said, yawning. "Mundungus Fletcher is bringing it, so help us," she added to Ginny, who grimaced.

"Let's hope Harry doesn't wake up while he's in the house," she muttered. Hermione nodded thoughtfully.

"Maybe I can Floo McGonagall and try to get Kingsley instead," she said.

"That could work," said Ginny. "I suppose I can Floo my Mum and get her to contact Dad at the Ministry, and he can contact Kingsley. I think they were both on the night shift. And while I'm at it, I can see if she'd like to help tend to Cameron."

"Good idea. Go on and do that, I'll stay here." Ginny nodded and walked away, leaving Hermione with Tonks and three of the Muggles. Cameron, despite the two blankets Hermione had brought, was still shivering.

"I'm ready," said Foreman, entering the room in jeans and a sweatshirt.

"Right, then. Let's go, before it gets light out." Foreman nodded and followed her downstairs. He was about to ask a question when Tonks put a finger to her mouth emphatically. When they made it downstairs, opened all the locks, and stepped outside, Tonks finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sorry about that… didn't want to wake anything up. You'll have to help me here…I know the way around London, but I'm not too good with Muggle things—what's a drugstore again?" Foreman sighed.

"A store where you can buy necessities, really, and over-the-counter medicine."

"I see. Tell me when we pass one. I would've had my husband, Remus, come—he's much better at this stuff than I am, but he's got a condition…."

"What's wrong with him?" asked Foreman, curiously. "Maybe I can take a look at him later; how long has he been sick?"

"Oh," said Tonks, eyes widening. "No, he hasn't got a Muggle disease. He's—well, to tell you the truth, he's a werewolf. No big deal in this day and age, he's just…indisposed on the full moons, you know?"

"A werewolf!" exclaimed Foreman.

"Shh!" hissed Tonks, as Foreman earned the pair a few glances on the dark street. "Watch where you go yelling that! A lot of our kind are a bit—prejudiced against werewolves."

"You're serious?" demanded Foreman. "Wow. And I thought we'd seen the worst of it with the mail-carrying owls."

"Well you don't need to get an attitude about it," said Tonks, slightly miffed. "We're just different than you all."

"Right," said Foreman. The two made their way silently for a few blocks. "Look—there's a drugstore. Come on in with me." But as they approached, they realized the store was closed. "It opens at five," said Foreman thoughtfully. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Four forty-two," said Tonks, squinting at a watch that seemed to have too many hands to tell just the time. "I guess we'll just wait out here." The two sat down wearily on the sidewalk.

"So tell me about your life," said Tonks curiously. "It must be cool, being a Muggle and all. Where do you work? What do you do exactly? I mean, what kinds of illnesses do Muggles get, and how do you treat them?" Foreman took a deep breath. This would be a long eighteen minutes.

* * *

"Her temperature's over 106 now, Mum," Ginny Weasley could be heard explaining as she climbed up the stairs, mother right behind her. "I don't know what to do, either, I mean, will Muggles respond to our fever reducers?"

"Oh, I'm not sure," said Molly as they entered Cameron's bedroom. "But we'll try. The side affects aren't too damaging, anyway. We'll get her better in no time. Hello, Doctor House; Doctor Chase; Hermione. How is she?"

"Worse," said Chase, who seemed quite pale himself. "I hope Foreman and Tonks get back quickly…"

"Allison, dear… wake up," cooed Molly, kneeling by her bedside. She turned to House. "She needs to take a few potions. Allison! Doctor Cameron, you need to wake up for a moment…." Cameron stirred and sat up suddenly.

"I need…."

"Shhh, it's all right, dear. Drink this. That's a girl, go on, take it." Cameron swallowed semi-consciously. "The poor thing!" exclaimed Molly worriedly. "She's soaking wet… Ginny, help me darling, we'll have to change her. Hermione, will you look for some suitable nightclothes in her bag?" Hermione nodded and started sifting through Cameron's luggage. Chase glanced at House, somewhat alarmed. As Molly uncovered Cameron, she frowned at House, who was about to make a comment.

"If the two of you can't act mature, please remove yourselves from the room," said Molly, annoyed.

"I'm fine," said Chase, as Hermione glanced at him, aggravated.

"Molly grabbed the clothes as Hermione handed them to her, and said a spell to remove Cameron's clothes and subsequently replace them with the new clothes, all the while hiding her from the view of her colleagues.

"Well I guess I'm not going to be getting much sleep tonight," said House finally. "I'm going to read my Medical Journal. Don't bother me unless she's about to die, the patient's about to die, or unless the equipment arrives."

"Is he always like that?" asked Ginny with disgust as House limped from the room.

"Yep," answered Chase shortly. He then glanced at the bedroom door. "I hope they get back soon…."

"I'm sure they will. Tonks knows her way around London, and Doctor Foreman hopefully knows what a drugstore looks like," reasoned Hermione. Chase chuckled.

"House sure does, at any rate," he said under his breath. He then turned to the girls. "So why exactly are you all—in hiding? Why don't they just take that guy to jail or something? Is he a part of organized crime?" Hermione and Ginny glanced at each other.

"Well, it's just not that simple," said Hermione, shrugging. "I know how hard it must be to believe—I mean, I was a Muggle until I turned eleven. But you just have to understand that Voldemort has so many followers, and he's so powerful, and so good at cheating and manipulating people who in turn manipulate the government, that he is nearly impossible to catch—and when Aurors do catch him, they rarely make it out alive."

"That's pretty rough," said Chase thoughtfully. Ginny snorted.

"Quite," she answered him, smiling in disbelief.

About ten minutes later, and quite suddenly, a horrible shrieking rang through the house.

"MUDBLOODS…. MUGGLES! BLOOD-TRAITOERS! BEGONE FROM THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS! BEGONE! BESMIRCH THE ANCIENT AND MOSTE NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK NO LONGER!"

"Ah! SHUT UP, YOU OLD HAG!" came the just-as-obnoxious voice of Nymphadora Tonks.

"YOU! BLOOD-TRAITOR! DISGUSTING BRAT!"

Ginny and Hermione looked at each other as a disgruntled ginger cat raced into the room, hair standing on end.

"Oh, Crookshanks," cooed Hermione. "It's all right."

"What on earth is that? Is everyone all right?" asked Chase, covering his ears as Tonks screamed again.

"It's a portrait of Tonks' great-aunt," supplied Molly, who was trying to soothe Cameron, who had woken up in a delirium.

"A portrait?" demanded Chase unbelievingly.

"Yeah," said Ginny. "They talk. Mrs. Black was Sirius Black's mother—Sirius was Harry's godfather. Anyway, dark family. Except Sirius, of course. He ran away and was disowned. Tonks' mother, Andromeda—the Healer you met earlier—ran off with a Muggle-born Wizard in school—Ted Tonks—and she was disowned as well," she said distractedly. "I'm going to go help Tonks shut the damn portrait up, be right back."

"Language, Ginny!" called Molly and Hermione simultaneously as Ginny ran downstairs.

"We can't get the portrait down," said Hermione apologetically to Chase. "There's a permanent sticking charm on the back—at least that's what we think." At that moment, House, Foreman, Ginny, and Tonks all entered the room, each in a various stage of frustration.

"Who died and went to Banshee heaven?" demanded House.

"Sorry," said Tonks brightly, "Ran into the umbrella stand again!"

"Their paintings talk!" exclaimed Foreman.

Ginny examined her nails. "I say we knock down the wall and get it over with."

"Can we please keep it at a dull roar?" demanded Chase loudly. "She's delirious, and her temperature just keeps rising!"

"What is it now?" asked House, both surprised and concerned that it hadn't gone down with the water or cooling cloth.

"106.4," said Molly worriedly. "If it hits 107, we have got to get her to a hospital, I think. Are there any Muggle hospitals around here?" she directed at Hermione, who shrugged helplessly.

"Do you have the medicine?" asked House of Foreman.

"Right here."

"How are we going to get her to swallow it?" asked Ginny curiously.

"I bought pills and liquid," answered Foreman. House nodded.

"See if she'll take the pills. Then I want Chase and Foreman in my office—room, rather. We're going to look at the case, seeing as we won't be getting anymore sleep tonight."

"Cameron's case?" asked Foreman incredulously.

"Yeah, because it's going to be really tough to figure out that she has a fever—whoops, I just did."

"But we can't leave her!" argued Chase. "What if she gets worse?"

"Someone will tell us," shrugged House.

"Don't you think she'd feel more comfortable waking up with someone she knows?" asked Molly pointedly.

"Like that ever happens," said House derisively. He sighed. "Fine. Foreman, you're in. I know that you two have a special connection."

"House," began Foreman warningly.

"I mean, what beats trying to infect her with a pathogen that will kill her?"

"I didn't—"

"Oh! That's right," said House, slapping his head and turning to Chase menacingly. "Sleeping with her while she's high. My mistake. Foreman, come on. Chase, you're almost as pathetic as Cameron."

"So caring makes you pathetic?" shot back Chase.

House stood still for a moment. "Yes," he said finally.

"Fine. I guess I'm pathetic. And Cameron's pathetic. And our patient must be really pathetic, to actually have risked his life for people—numerous times. And I suppose you're pathetic."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said House with a false sense of uncaring.

"Then look me in the eye and tell me you didn't care about Stacy." House slowly turned back around and reached for a Vicodin, closing his eyes calmly.

"I don't care about Stacy. Now do your job." Chase glared at him as he stalked off, Foreman glancing back apologetically.

"Who was Stacy?" asked Hermione quietly.

"His Ex," said Chase shortly.

"Did she…die?" asked Ginny, eyes darting towards the floor sympathetically.

"No," said Chase, looking at the girl pityingly. "He drove her off—well, not exactly. None of us know the whole story. They broke it off after the ordeal with his leg."

"He loved her, didn't he?" asked Ginny, sighing sadly.

"I think so," said Chase quietly. Suddenly he realized that Ginny was fighting back tears. "What's the matter?"

"Ginny, Harry's not going to leave you," said Hermione quietly.

"But he's all noble anyway, and if something happens to him—you know him, he won't think he deserves me or something, and he's going to… he's going to break my heart. Isn't he?"

"Ginevra Molly Weasley, stop talking like that at once. I'll talk with you later, darling. Now I want you and Hermione to get out of the room—goodness knows we don't need anyone else catching whatever she has. You, too, Tonks. Go get some sleep, dear."

"I might just take you up on that," smiled Tonks. "Night, all."

"Morning," said Hermione flatly.

* * *

Several hours later, Molly Weasley was making breakfast in the kitchen. House, Foreman, Hermione, Ginny, Tonks, and Ron all sat around the table tiredly. Hermione and Ginny were commenting on their surprise that Malfoy had slept through the entire fiasco and still hadn't been heard from. Just as the pancakes were finished, the Floo turned a bright green.

"Good morning, everyone!" exclaimed Fred jubilantly as he stepped out of the fireplace.

"Top of the morning to ye," echoed George, stepping out a moment later. The twins looked around. "Why the glum faces?"

"Doctor Cameron's really sick and we've all been up half the night," answered Ginny, frowning at her brothers' smiling faces.

"What's wrong with her?" asked Fred curiously, walking over to his mother and sampling an egg.

"High fever—it's just reached 107—delirium, the shivers; the whole bit," said Hermione sadly. George began eating nonchalantly and didn't notice as Fred glanced at him in alarm.

"Er—she wouldn't have happened to eat anything odd last night?"George suddenly looked up in shock and horror.

"Say—fudge?" he asked worriedly. Within a second, the face of every magical person in the room dawned in comprehension.

"You didn't!" exclaimed Ginny, standing up furiously.

"Well, we thought one of you would get them and know what they were," said Fred, backing up.

"YOU IRRESPONSIBLE," began Molly, even more incensed than Ginny, "RECKLESS, CARELESS EXCUSES FOR GROWN MEN!" she thundered.

"What's the trouble?" asked a red-headed man who had just appeared in the Fireplace, eyes heavy from work.

"WHAT'S THE TROUBLE? WHAT'S THE TROUBLE?"

"Arthur," began Tonks quickly, "The boys—er—set out some Fever Fudge last night…."

"Well at least now we know they work on Muggles," said George.

"Not helping," said Fred, elbowing him.

"THE ANTIDOTE HAD BETTER WORK ON MUGGLES!" exclaimed Mrs. Weasley, advancing on her sons.

"Ah—I'll run up and administer the antidote now, shall I?"

"YES, YOU SHALL! IF YOU WEREN'T OF AGE—YOU KNOW WHAT, I DON'T CARE! YOU'RE GROUNDED! FOR LIFE!" With that, the twins raced upstairs, Molly on their heels.

"Er—I suppose I'll tend to breakfast," said Ginny helpfully, standing up in the wake of the explosion.

"Do I want to know what a 'fever fudge' is?" asked House.

"It's pretty self-explanatory," said Hermione. "In a series called 'skiving snackboxes.' They're for students to use to get out of class—one half makes them sick, and then there's an antidote as soon as they get out of the classroom," she said disapprovingly.

"Wish they had those when I was growing up," said Foreman. "What if the antidote doesn't work?"

"Let's just hope it does," said Ron, shaking his head with wonder.

"I'm Arthur Weasley—Molly's husband, the rest of the red-heads' father," said the Fireplace man, extending a hand to House and then Foreman, who introduced themselves. "Kingsley Shacklebolt will be over quite soon, I expect. He's got your medical devices. You know, I'm so pleased to meet you, it's really amazing how you folks do it without magic…." Arthur droned on excitedly about Muggles and plugs and 'eklekcity,' and House and Foreman listened quietly as they sipped coffee.

Several minutes passed by. Then yelling could be distinctly heard coming from upstairs as the kitchen door opened, and Cameron walked in, still pale as a ghost and sweating, followed by Chase.

"Are you okay?" asked House, worry creeping into his tone. Cameron groaned and forced a smile.

"I feel like crap."

"You look it," agreed Foreman.

"Thanks," she muttered, flopping into a chair.

"I beg to differ; why don't you wear outfits like that to work? Cuddy sure doesn't have a problem with it," said House in a friendly tone.

"Shut up," she groaned. Chase sat down next to her, rubbing his temples.

"So do you still feel any remnants of the fever? Can you remember the night?" asked Hermione, apparently dying to know whether the fudge affected Muggles any differently than it did Magical people.

"Uh…I'm still tired and dizzy…but I haven't got an actual fever anymore…hopefully I won't go into shock or something. And I remember bits and pieces of the night. I thought I was going to die." Hermione looked at her with pity.

"Well, thank goodness Fred and George came for breakfast."

"Or it was a curse that they came last night," reasoned House.

"Yes, well…after awhile you get used to them," Hermione admitted.

"She and the twins used to be in rows all the time," said Ginny fondly. "And her and Ron, actually," she grinned.

"And now you're dating?" asked Chase of Ron, who nodded through his mouthfuls of food.

"Anyone home?" came a yell from the front entrance.

"That'd be Kingsley," said Arthur, standing up. "We're in here!" he yelled. "Come on, we can all go help bring stuff upstairs, I suppose." Everyone made to stand up.

"Cameron, go back to bed for a few hours. But I want you awake a few hours before Cuddy gets here so we can work on the case," said House. Cameron nodded thankfully and stood up.

The other doctors and several (competent) witches and wizards spent the rest of the morning getting some machines wired and hooked up into the third floor of 12 Grimmauld Place.

"Impressive," said House once everything was in its place. "And we still have six, glorious, Cuddy-free hours left ahead of us. Chase, go wake Cameron up. We need to get to work."

* * *

A/N: Sorry about the long wait! I know the chapter was kind of full of fluff; I had a lot more, but it wasn't the right place to end the chapter, so next chapter expect a Medical session thing (finally!) and Cuddy visiting, maybe a few other mishaps. And eventually I'd like to work in some interesting chats, including House and Snape, House and Harry (eventually), Cuddy and McGonagall, Chase and Draco, House and Ron, Cameron and Voldemort (just kidding), ETC. So please review! The next update will be ASAP. 


	7. Chapter 7

* * *

Several hours after falling into bed, exhausted after her illness, Cameron found herself being shaken awake. "What's going on?" she asked sleepily, sitting up. Her head was still pounding slowly.

"House needs us all. We're going to take a look at the patient again. He woke up." Cameron opened her eyes and focused on Chase.

"He's awake?" she asked, surprise lamented into her voice.

"Yeah. Just a moment ago. He seems to be in an all-right state," said Chase hurriedly. "But we don't know how long it'll last. Come on, quick."

"I'm coming," sighed Cameron, standing up as Chase left the room. She quickly dressed and found her way into the room in which the patient had been comatose hours before. The boy was currently sitting up in bed, and House, Chase, and Foreman were asking him questions by his bedside. House looked up as Cameron entered the room.

"Cameron—meet Harry Potter. Potter, this is the last of your doctors, Allison Cameron. She was previously incapacitated due to the ingenuity of the—Weasley twins." Cameron studied Harry, smiling, as he looked up at her. She was stricken by the intensity of his bright-green eyes.

"Hi, Harry. It's nice to meet you," she said, watching him intently.

"You too," he whispered hoarsely.

"So, Harry," began House thoughtfully. "You've had migraines, three separate comas, delusions, and hallucinations. Am I correct so far?" Harry nodded. "And this all started after coming into contact with a locket," he said, glancing at the clipboard he was holding, "that held a piece of a man's soul?" Harry's eyes widened.

"They—told you?" he coughed, his eyes turning stormy with anger.

"They had to. We might be your last chance," said Cameron empathetically. "Your other doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. We think you may have a—Muggle illness."

"Then why do you need to know the specifics of what I'm doing magically?" he asked, his voice a bit more clear after being exercised.

"Any information helps," said Foreman seriously. "Now have you been out of the country in the past few years?"

"Never," said Harry.

"Any strange environments? Excessive dirt, animals?" asked Chase.

"Not in real life," said Harry. "In pensives, I suppose."

"Pensive?" asked House, frowning.

"They're preserved memories," explained Harry. "You can remove them from your mind and then take a look at them from another perspective."

"So you're not really there?" asked Cameron.

"No."

"Do you have any other symptoms? Any new ones?"

"I'm kind of stiff," said Harry. "And my head still hurts like hell."

"Does he still have a fever?" House asked Chase.

"Yes; it's 101.5," he answered.

"All right, then. We'll be coming back for some tests later," House said to Harry, who nodded.

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In the diagnostics room, House paced in front of the whiteboard while Cameron, Foreman, and Chase discussed the symptoms.

"Some variant of Influenza would explain the fever and aches," said Cameron thoughtfully.

"No, an infection is far more likely than a Virus. Nobody else has contracted anything," said Chase, looking at his notes intently.

"But his lymph nodes aren't swollen," argued Cameron. She then looked at House, who was writing on the board. "He hasn't complained of a cough," she said, confused.

"Yet. Didn't you hear him in there?"

"Sarcoidosis could explain a cough, and his aches, and the fatigue," added Foreman.

"His lymph nodes would be swollen," said Cameron again.

"Or it could be TB," said House. "And if we treat for Sarcoidosis and he has Tuberculosis, it could kill him."

"But his body isn't fighting off infection!"

"Okay, then something's wrong with his Immune System," said House thoughtfully.

"But then it could still be Viral," said Cameron. "Viral Meningitis?" House was silent for a moment.

"Does he have a history of Migraines?" The ducklings looked at each other blankly. "We need to divide up the symptoms. If he has two diseases, we have to see which symptoms belong to which diseases, and which, if any, are completely unrelated. Chase, do an MRI. When he's done, I want Foreman to get a CAT scan of the lungs. Cameron, go find out more information from those people about the classes Henry took—"

"Harry."

"Whatever. Find out about Pensives, the general environment, and whether any of his friends have been out of the country lately." He looked at his employees expectantly. "What are you waiting for? Go!"

* * *

"How are you feeling?" asked Hermione sympathetically as Cameron walked into the kitchen.

"Better," she smiled, taking a seat between Ginny and a red-head she hadn't been introduced to yet.

"Hi, I'm Charlie," he said, smiling and extending a hand marred by a large burn.

"Allison," said Cameron, smiling.

"How's Harry doing?" asked Ginny immediately.

"He's doing well, considering he just lapsed out of a Coma. We're going to try and keep him out of it."

"Do you know what's wrong with him yet?" asked Ron worriedly.

"We're not sure, but we're running some tests. We've got a few ideas that are possibilities." Cameron watched as Ginny nodded slowly. She took a deep breath before speaking again. "I need to ask you guys a few more questions about—magic and all, and about Harry's life." Ginny, Ron, and Hermione exchanged glances.

"We can't right now," said Hermione.

"There's something we have to go look at, and we need to leave in about five minutes. My Dad is picking us up," explained Ron. Cameron nodded.

"All right then. I suppose I can ask later. When will you all be back?"

"A few hours," said Ginny. "We'll be home by dinnertime."

"Okay. I'll just go back upstairs and do some research," answered Cameron.

"Doesn't that ever get boring?" asked Charlie amusedly. "I'm sure they can do without you for an hour or so. Do you want to go see some Wizarding shops?"

"I don't know," answered Cameron quickly. "I should stay here. Didn't that Tonks say we couldn't leave?"

"Please. Nobody in our world even knows you exist right now. I have a wand; if we're attacked or something I will know what to do. You can see Fred and George's joke shop—it's brilliant."

Cameron smiled tolerantly. "I don't think—"

"Come on, you know you're bored here!" exclaimed Charlie, laughing. "Here, you can ask me all you want about magic. You'll still be doing your job; just in a different building."

"You should go," piped in Ginny.

"Yeah," added Ron, "It very well might be awhile before you leave this dump again," he said, looking around at the kitchen.

"All right," laughed Cameron. "I'll go. But we have to be back soon. House won't be happy if I'm not back here by the time Cuddy arrives."

"Great," said Charlie. "Let's go. You tell me about your work, I'll tell you about mine."

Hermione watched with curiosity as Charlie coaxed Cameron into the Floo and the two left for Diagon Alley.

"D'you think he likes her?" asked Ron thoughtfully.

"I'm not quite sure," answered Ginny with an air of contemplation. "But it'd be interesting if he did."

"You do think that Diagon Alley will be safe, right?" asked Hermione worriedly.

"It should be—it'll definitely seem quite dark, though," Ginny replied. "I wonder why he's taking her there of all places. Not much left to see."

"No kidding."

"So let's go over the plan again," said Ginny.

"When Dad comes, we have him escort us to King's Cross, saying we're going to St. Mungo's to meet Neville," said Ron. "In our disguises, of course."

"I hate my glamour charm," said Ginny halfheartedly.

Ron ignored her. "And then we go to the next stop and create an unauthorized portkey to Knockturn Alley. You remember the incantation, 'Mione?" Hermione nodded. "Then, while all the Ministry officials are busy—Kingsley told me this morning that he'd give us some diversion time—we Apparate to Godric's Hollow. Everyone understand?"

"Yes," said Hermione. "Then we get into the cellar and find the Horcrux," she added in a low whisper.

* * *

That evening, Grimmauld Place was strikingly quiet. Molly Weasley hummed to herself as she prepared dinner. She was so happy that Harry had woken up, yet she was also still extremely worried about the poor boy. And her own children weren't in the best of shapes, either. Bill was still recovering from his attack. Percy still wasn't on good terms with the rest of the family. Ron and Ginny were up to something—getting themselves into danger, and she had to sit by and watch helplessly.

A lot of people were coming to dinner tonight. Kingsley had agreed to come, and Arthur was getting off of work early. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny had said they'd be home for dinner. Fred and George couldn't be kept away from one of their mother's home-cooked meals. Charlie was probably staying, and poor Draco was still in the house. Add in Harry (though he wouldn't be joining them at the table) and the four—no, five doctors, and there was quite a bunch. Molly also wanted to send something over for Tonks and Remus—the full moon had been yesterday, and he was likely feeling very ill.

Suddenly, Molly looked up as Charlie and Allison Cameron stumbled into the room via the Floo. They were both laughing loudly.

"Where have you two been?" she asked curiously.

"Diagon Alley," said Charlie, grinning. "We went to the twins' joke shop."

"Were there many people there?" she asked in a would-be nonchalant voice. But most everyone knew that she was very proud of Fred and George's business flair.

"It was packed," said Cameron. "Those boys are so funny. All of those people," she said, smiling and shaking her head.

"Katie, Angelina, and Lee Jordan were there," Charlie explained to his Mum. She smiled tolerantly.

"I hope they didn't make you test any of their products," she said under her breath.

"Oh, no. But I almost want to go back and buy some!" she said in disbelief. "House would love that shop," she said quietly. "He's always pulling some trick or another to get off Clinic Duty at the hospital," she explained. "What time is Cuddy getting in?" she then asked the older Witch.

"Oh, I forgot to tell Arthur to pick her up!" Molly exclaimed. "She'll be here in about two hours, I expect. Charlie, would you be a dear and pick this woman up from the Muggle airport? Do you know your way around those things?"

"I took Muggle studies," he shrugged. "I'll be fine."

"You'll need a portkey," said Molly apologetically. "Why don't you run up to Hogwarts and ask Minerva about it?"

"Sure thing, Mum," answered Charlie, grinning good-naturedly. "I'll stop by and ask Hagrid and Grawp to dinner." Mrs. Weasley's jaw dropped.

"No!"

"Relax, Mum. I'm only kidding."

"Invite Hagrid. Not Grawp, please. We've got enough people here without a Giant!"

"A giant?" asked Cameron curiously.

"Yeah," said Charlie, grinning. "Well, I'm off. Thanks for coming to Diagon Alley with me."

"Any time," smiled Cameron. "Thanks for answering all my questions."

"Right. See you later," he said, before disappearing back into the fireplace and yelling, "Hogwarts!" With a gust of flames, he was gone.

"So how do you like the Wizarding World?" asked Mrs. Weasley, bustling around and smiling at Cameron encouragingly.

"It's interesting," said Cameron thoughtfully. "I—I like it, but it's so different. I never could have imagined that something like this existed. And all the people I've met are very nice."

"Well, you've met the good ones, then," said Molly thoughtfully. "There are a lot of bad Witches and Wizards, too. Too many," she said sadly. "We all want this war to be over." When Cameron didn't say anything, she changed the subject. "So I take it you've met most of my children?"

"I've met Bill, Charlie, Ginny, Ron, and Fred and George. Is that all?"

"Oh," said Molly. "No, no, that's not all. Percy. He's in between Charlie and the twins. He—we don't know where exactly his loyalties lie. He's not in the Order."

"Oh," answered Cameron.

"So are you married? Do you have a boyfriend?" pressed Mrs. Weasley.

"No," said Cameron sadly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear. I didn't mean to pry. I just saw rings in your bag earlier when we were trying to change you into some dry clothes. I assumed—"

"My husband died, years ago. He had Cancer."

"Oh, you poor dear! I'm so sorry; I had no idea."

"No, it's fine," said Cameron. But she was cut off when she could hear yelling upstairs. It was Chase.

"I need some Epi, Stat!" Cameron glanced at Mrs. Weasley and raced upstairs and into the room where medicines and injections were being stored. Shaking, she grabbed the vial and hurried into Harry's room.

"What happened?" she questioned Chase, as Foreman and House came running.

"He's going into Anaphylactic shock! Quick!" She hurried over to Harry, who was writhing on the bed and clutching his neck, and injected the hormone into his veins.

"All right, he's stabilizing," said Foreman, who had given Harry an Oxygen mask.

"When did he go into shock?" asked House as soon as they had stabilized Harry.

"After the CT scan," said Foreman. "He must have an allergy to the dye."

"Wonderful," said House, glancing at Harry. He then turned to Cameron. "Where have you been?" She groaned.

"I was asking Charlie Weasley questions, because Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had to leave."

"What did you find out?"

"A lot, actually. A few of the animals Harry's been in contact with—Magical ones, though… he gave me a book on them that we can look at," she said, taking a copy of "Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them," from her purse. "And I found out a little bit about pensives. Did the MRI show anything?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Foreman. "Come on into the Conference room." Cameron nodded and followed him.

"So he's okay?" asked Mrs. Weasley, her voice full of concern. She had followed Cameron up the stairs and had watched as Harry's reaction was stabilized.

"For now," said House ominously. "Come on."

* * *

Two hours later, on the dot, people started pouring in for dinner. Fred and George were the first to arrive, and Mrs. Weasley sent them upstairs to fetch the doctors and to find Draco Malfoy. Next, Kingsley Shacklebolt arrived, bringing with him Hestia Jones. When Arthur walked into the kitchen, Molly sent him out to the Lupins' with a basket of food. Hagrid was the next to arrive, and at the moment, he and Hestia and Kingsley were deep in discussion about recent changes in Ministry Procedure.

Molly looked up as Draco thundered down the stairs, muttering angrily about stupid inventions. Of course, he was followed a minute later by Fred and George, and two minutes after them came the Muggles. Molly ushered everyone to the tables, where they sat chatting contentedly. The Floo lit up again, and Arthur re-entered Headquarters.

"Arthur, did you guys catch that maniac with the flesh-eating computer?" asked Kingsley loudly over the noise. Arthur shook his head angrily and started to say something when the front doors burst open.

"MUM!"

"HOUSE!"

"MUGGLES! FILTH! BEGONE FROM THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS!"

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Molly. She stood up and raced into the front hallway. House and his ducklings exchanged foreboding glances.

"Cuddy's here," said House thoughtfully. The entire table waited in silence as Fred and George leaped up to go help their mother.

"YOU DIDN'T TELL ME SHE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT BLOODY MAGIC!"

"WELL I DIDN'T KNOW, CHARLIE!"

"SOMEONE HAD BETTER EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

"FILTH! DIRT! BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF BLACK! HOW DARE YOU!"

Everyone watched with anticipation as Cuddy marched into the kitchen, Charlie and Mrs. Weasley hot on her heels.

"HOUSE!" exclaimed Cuddy the second she laid eyes on him. "EXPLAIN!"

The ensuing pause was intense enough on its own. It didn't help that not a moment later, the fireplace brightened and turned green, and three bloody, out-of-breathteenagers were spewed from it successively.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I won't be able to update for two weeks, sorry! But the second I get back I'll update with a very long chapter. Please review! Thanks!

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

* * *

To say that chaos followed would be a gross understatement. For a moment, Charlie and Cuddy were forgotten as the room's occupants stared at Hermione, Ron, and Ginny in horror.

"My God!" exclaimed Mrs. Weasley, snapping from her momentary trance and running up to the children. "What happened?" She used the moment to take in their appearances. Ron, who was being supported between the girls, looked to be the worst. Blood was gushing from his right leg, his left shoulder was bruised badly, and he had scrapes all over his face. Next to him, Hermione was holding a bloody cloth up to a wound on her neck, and she was wheezing. Ginny didn't appear to be terribly wounded, but her eyes were shut and she was wobbling precariously.

"Somebody Floo Ted and Andromeda," said Mrs. Weasley shakily. "Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, you come into the parlor _now_." As the teenagers and Mrs. Weasley exited the room, everyone else immediately began to fetch potions or put on a pot of tea or go contact someone or listen to the teens' stories in the next room, leaving Charlie, the Muggles, and Kingsley Shacklebolt alone in the kitchen.

"House. We need to talk," said Cuddy furiously after a long moment of silence.

"Yes, Mommy," said House sarcastically before letting out a long breath. "Listen. At least go take a look at the equipment we have, and at the case. This is possibly the most interesting case we've ever had—plus, if you buy what these people are telling us…it's hard to believe…I don't believe it…Cameron, how about you tell Cuddy why we need to take the case?" Cameron shot her boss a dirty look before turning to Cuddy.

"The world could depend upon it," said Cameron skeptically. "I don't think we should take the chance of _not_ solving the case."

Cuddy's face would have been humorous if the situation wasn't so impossibly serious. She started laughing unbelievingly.

"You guys actually buy this? This is completely and utterly ridiculous! I should fire _all _of you!" she yelled angrily. "You're jeopardizing all of your jobs, my job, the reputation of Princeton Plainsboro…."

"Ah… Ms. Cuddy, is it?" spoke up Kingsley after a moment. The Muggles all looked surprised to remember that there were still Wizards in the room.

"Yes?" she snapped at him, narrowing her eyes.

"I don't know how much water this will hold, coming from me…but they're telling the truth. Our entire world, and subsequently your entire world…depends on Harry Potter. He is the only one we believe can defeat You-Know-Who…."

"No, actually, I don't know who," spit out Cuddy with annoyance. "All you guys are just some… religious cult! I don't know why my doctors chose to come here, but I assure you that we will be gone before you can say 'Abracadabra,' or whatever those magic words are." With that, Cuddy stormed out of the kitchen.

"Cuddy!" exclaimed House, walking after her angrily. "Wait! Lisa!" She spun around once they were in the parlor.

"What? What is it, House? I honestly do not know what you want me to do."

"You said that you trusted me," said House carefully, looking Cuddy in the eyes.

"I thought I did," she said, shaking her head. "But this is too much. What makes you believe them?"

"Uh…they do magic, for starters." Cuddy rolled her eyes. "Just look around! It may be insane, but it's real. You can see it, you can touch it, you can feel it. Go look at the patient if you want to… it's a real sickness, regardless of the circumstances. We're not playing pretend!" he exclaimed as Cuddy turned around once more to face the door.

"I'm going to look at the patient. Are they paying normally at least?"

"I can probably get them to make a large donation to the hospital or something," shrugged House, gaining confidence that Cuddy would give her approval.

"Come on. Where's the patient?"

"Follow me."

"Stop acting like an ass. I haven't said this was okay."

"Yet."

"What makes you think I'm going to say yes at all?" she demanded, raising her voice, as she followed him into the foyer and started up the steps. In the foyer were Draco Malfoy and Fred and George Weasley, who had just managed to shut up the portrait of Mrs. Black.

"Shut up!" hissed George, frowning.

Cuddy threw the boys a look and continued after House. "Now, is it just me, or was there a portrait screaming as we walked into this house?" she demanded as they reached the first landing.

"There was a portrait screaming. Someone's mother, apparently."

"Just what we needed."

The two walked into Harry's room to find him awake and deep in thought.

"Dr. House," said Harry, surprised. "Do you know what's wrong with me?"

"This is why I never see patients," muttered House. "Always rushing you to reach a diagnosis." Cuddy rolled her eyes.

"Mr. Potter, I take it?"

"The one and only," joked Harry darkly.

"I'm Doctor Lisa Cuddy, Dean of Medicine at Princeton Plainsboro."

"Nice to meet you. Do _you_ know what's wrong with me?"

"No," she said, smiling shortly. "Sorry, I'm just here to take a look at your tests and Patient History… I just wanted to check in and make sure there was an actual patient…."

"She's a bit paranoid," explained House.

"House, just _stop_ for one minute! Can you even comprehend the repercussions that this could have on the hospital, and on me?"

House's eyes darkened. "I'm trying to see things from your perspective but I can't get my _head_ that far up my _ass_," he retorted.

Suddenly, a scream reached their ears from downstairs. "YOU DID WHAT!"

"I wonder what's happened to make Mrs. Weasley so upset," said Harry awkwardly, watching his Muggle doctors banter furiously.

"The other kids showed up in the fireplace with blood all over them," dismissed House.

"How many people live here?" demanded Cuddy.

"Depends," answered Harry.

"And who owns this house? What on earth is the purpose of having a bunch of people convene all the time in a place like this?"

"It's my house," answered Harry, frowning. "And this is the Headquarters in the fight against Voldemort… I hope you all are going to be Obliviated…."

* * *

When Cuddy finished tearing through 12 Grimmauld Place and descended into the parlor with House; Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were in the middle of telling the story of what had happened. An eager and worried audience, which had expanded to include Minerva McGonagall, Mundungus Fletcher, and the Lupins, listened in apprehension.

Seeing House and Cuddy in the doorway, Foreman snapped at them, "Either come in or stay out; these kids have just gone through severe emotional trauma…."

"Mmm, trauma. Sounds interesting. We're in," replied House, taking a seat near the door.

"Keep going, Hermione," said Remus Lupin tiredly. "Once the Death Eaters started arriving, what did you do?"

"Well, we were on the edge of Knockturn Alley still, and we figured that if we just kept our cloaks around us and kept on the down-low, we might not be noticed…."

"Should've called Foreman if you wanted to keep on the DL," muttered House.

"This is not the time," hissed Cameron, while Foreman just rolled his eyes.

"Anyway," resumed Ginny, taking over for Hermione. "That didn't go over too well…we were the only non-Death Eaters in the street at that point, and were spotted before we could hide anywhere. By Bellatrix."

"Oh, God," whispered Andromeda Tonks, burying her head in her hands.

"She didn't know who we were at first. But then a bunch of Death Eaters circled in on us, just looking to torture or kill someone probably. We figured that we had the element of surprise, so we acted stupid for a few minutes, and we were still under our glamour charms."

"But then she started using Legilimency," said Ron.

"I wonder how long she's been able to do that," mused Lupin thoughtfully. Across the room, Cuddy looked at House with confusion and disbelief etched onto her face.

"She realized who we were and called off the attack, wanting to toy with us or kill us herself, most likely. Well, then the other Death Eaters joined in and they started attacking us, and we retaliated, obviously. I thought we might be done for and then I saw Mundungus coming out of Borgin's. He saw us, obviously, and then Hermione realized that she should send a Patronus, which she sent to McGonagall. We thought Mundungus would alert the Order, but instead he started stunning some Death Eaters. When they noticed him, we were able to knock a few more out, and we were right in front of Borgin and Burke's when You-Know-Who showed up." Ron shuddered and stopped talking.

"We only glimpsed him," said Hermione. "We ran for the Floo, but I can't believe we made it."

"Why did you all feel the need to lie to me?" asked Arthur Weasley, the disappointment and fear in his voice easily discernable.

"This is all my fault," said Kingsley. "I knew they were Apparating somewhere and didn't want the Ministry to know—but I thought they were on an Order mission; I had no idea it was just on their own whim…."

"It was an Order mission!" exclaimed Ron, annoyed. "Just not one that we were—assigned. But it was necessary—and successful," he said, looking at Lupin meaningfully.

"Successful?" asked Lupin, eyebrows raised.

"Successful," repeated Hermione shortly.

"That doesn't change the fact that you put yourselves in danger, without alerting any of us," insisted Molly, hands on her hips. "You could have all been killed."

"We're alive," said Ginny pointedly. "I'm going to talk to Harry." With that, she stood up, wincing slightly.

"You are still going to face restrictions for this!" warned Mrs. Weasley. Ginny rolled her eyes angrily. Mrs. Weasley turned to Ron and Hermione. "The two of you as well. And no, I don't care that you're of age. You still are not mature enough to handle Order membership; that much is obvious."

"Mrs. Weasley," began Hermione, "With all due respect… we probably know more than even you at this point, about V-Voldemort and about what Harry has to do. We're going to be taking some risks this year, just like the rest of you. And yes, we might not make it. And we realize that, and we accept that! We're going to be careful, but we are willing to make sacrifices if it will save the Wizarding world." Ron and Ginny were looking at Hermione with great surprise. Fred and George looked at each other, eyes widened, and all of the other Weasleys looked quite uncomfortable, looking from Hermione to their Matriarch nervously.

"Why I never—in all these years—you are still children!" But before she or anyone else could continue, a strange, high-pitched song filled the room.

"Uh—my cell phone," said Cuddy apologetically, pulling it out with a frown. "Hello?" Everyone looked at her for a moment. "An _outbreak of influenza_?" she demanded. "Damn it! Inspectors? Don't we already have enough on our plate with hundreds of people pouring in for vaccinations? I know it's not your fault. I don't know; tell them I'm held up at a conference—I'll get the next flight I can get. Bad weather?" She groaned. "All right, there's nothing I can do. I'll be there as soon as possible. Bye." She hung up and closed her eyes wearily.

"Flu outbreak?" asked Foreman immediately.

"Yeah. Wilson called to give me the Heads up. God, I don't know how I'm going to get back to the hospital in time… I'm going to get fired…."

"We won't let you get fired," said Lupin tiredly. "We'll create a Portkey for you. Hermione, have you read up on them?"

"I think I can make one," she answered him, nodding. "And I have to, because Ginny and I were the only ones who have been to the hospital. I need about an hour, though. I've got to make sure I'm focused." Lupin nodded, smiling.

"Thank you." He then turned to Cuddy. "You don't need to catch a plane; we'll have you back at your hospital in a maximum of two or three hours."

"Oh—well…okay, then. Right. I am going to take my Medical Team into the hallway and have a quick private discussion. Is that all right with everyone?" When nobody objected, Cuddy forced a smile and opened the door, allowing Cameron, Chase, Foreman, and House to file out before exiting herself.

Cuddy turned to her employees resignedly. "You have five days. Then you are coming back despite whatever curses these people might put on our hospital or stories they might fill your heads with. Understood?"

"Understood," nodded House quickly. The door to the parlor opened, and Ginny Weasley stepped out cautiously. She smiled at the doctors.

"Mum says that they're starting dinner now, and to go down to the kitchen when you're finished talking." Ginny then turned to Cuddy. "I don't believe we've met—I'm Ginny Weasley."

"Lisa Cuddy; it's nice to meet you," the older woman replied, smiling.

"So—I take it Harry's not any better?"

"Not yet," answered Cameron. "But we've still got to take a look at some test results. Don't lose hope," she added reassuringly. Ginny nodded sadly and turned down the hallway and out of sight.

"Girlfriend?" asked Cuddy.

"Yeah," answered House. "Well, I'm hungry. Are you coming to dinner?" he asked Cuddy.

"I guess so," she answered.

* * *

The only ones absent from dinner were Kingsley, who was with other Aurors at the crime scene, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry. Everybody else had decided to stay, and the evening's excitement was temporarily forgotten.

"So Draco," began Lupin a few minutes into dinner, "How are your studies coming along?" Draco frowned and twirled his spaghetti spitefully.

"Fine."

"Any problems with certain subjects…?"

"Say, Muggle Studies?" asked Ron, laughing.

"Shut up, Weasley," frowned Draco.

"I'm surprised you don't know to specify which 'Weasley' you're talking about by now," commented Cameron, earning chuckles from everyone. Suddenly, Mundungus stood up quickly, swearing.

"What's the matter with you?" asked Charlie curiously.

"Uh… I forgot that I have some business… s' an important deal—sorry, everyone; Molly—but there's another bidder involved, an' I better be goin'…."

"Bye, Dung," said Fred cheerily. Everyone bid the man farewell, and he rushed his dish to the sink and was gone in a flash.

"That man," began Molly, shaking her head disapprovingly.

"What about him?" asked Foreman curiously.

"Well," began George, "Mum doesn't know what to make of him. He's awfully street-smart, but is always involved in illegal business. But Dumbledore always knew that would be useful, and wanted him kept around. Mum doesn't know what to make of him because he's put her kids in danger, but he's also saved Ron twice, at least…."

"Now, George," began Molly, shaking her head before she was interrupted.

"He'll shape up, Molly," said her husband, smiling. "But let's talk about something different tonight; we've gone over Mundungus a hundred times. How is the school doing, Minerva?"

"As good as can be expected, I suppose. Shortage of students and a shortage of teachers, but we're making due. I almost wish we could combine everyone into two Houses instead of four…."

"Or what about one house?" asked Hermione, entering the kitchen holding a paperclip. "That's what the sorting hat always wanted."

"Yes, Albus was thinking of doing that as well. If we make changes, they will have to be after the holiday, though…did you make the portkey, Miss Granger?"

"Yes; it didn't take as long as I thought it would," said Hermione, smiling. She turned to Cuddy. "You need to be holding this at 7:30, and you'll be transported to the hospital. I could Apparate there a bit later to make sure you got there okay, but I can't foresee a problem."

"So this…paperclip," said Cuddy, taking the Portkey from Hermione, "is going to transport me to another continent?"

"Yes," said Lupin, smiling at her skepticism. "I know it's got to be very difficult to comprehend, but just trust us."

"If you'd like to see the formula behind the spell, or read up on portkeys, I could lend you this book—" began Hermione.

"Why would anyone want to read a book about portkeys?" asked Ron, yawning. Hermione gave him a dirty look. "Want to play Chess after dessert? I say we have a game-night; we haven't had one in ages."

"No, thanks, I don't think anybody is in the mood to lose to you in Chess," said Hermione, annoyed.

"Dad?" asked Ron hopefully.

"I don't fancy losing in Chess tonight, either. But I am up for a game-night. We haven't had a night off in quite awhile. I do want to run to the Ministry, though, and ask Kingsley about which Death Eaters were caught."

"I would love to stay, but I really need to get back to Hogwarts," said Minerva.

"I'll play Chess with you," offered House. His ducklings looked at him with some surprise.

"Are you any good?" asked Ron.

"I'm good enough," said House.

"We're up for Poker or Gobstones or something," said Fred after whispering a moment with George.

"Would you guys be up for learning some… 'muggle' games?" asked Chase curiously.

"Say no," warned Draco. "I'm learning about them in Muggle Studies…they're insane."

"What game is insane?" demanded Cameron.

"The one where you twist all over everybody to touch the polka dots," said Draco in a very serious manner.

"Twister?" smiled Remus. He turned to his wife. "Lily introduced that one to us in my fifth year… I think you'd enjoy it."

"Sounds fun. I'm in. Mum, Dad, don't we have a game of Magical Monopoly at home?"

Andromeda nodded, laughing. "We do. Shall we go and get it?"

"Yeah," said Charlie, grinning. Tonight will be fun. Are you all in?" he asked Cameron. She looked at Foreman and Chase, who shrugged and nodded, respectively.

"Sounds good," she smiled.

"I'll go tell Ginny and—Harry will be disappointed he has to miss this," said Ron.

"We can do a game in that room, so he can play or at least watch," suggested Hestia Jones, who was sitting between Charlie and Remus.

"The boy needs rest," said Molly stubbornly.

"Laughter is the best medicine," said House thoughtfully.

"You can't be serious," started Chase.

"No; I think that he can play a game…we already know that what he has isn't communicable. Let him have some fun for once. Just don't go too crazy." Ron looked delighted, but Hermione looked worried.

"Are you sure?" she asked, biting her lip.

"He's fine. He's just got to stay in bed. If anything, it'll be better to have more people there—that way we'll know if he starts hallucinating or something." House looked thoughtfully at Molly Weasley, who was pursing her lips.

"All right, then. That's settled. We reconvene at eight for game-night." Everyone agreed, and after supper and dessert were finished and the kitchen cleaned, the house's occupants dispersed.

* * *

Around 7:20, Remus decided to find Cuddy and make sure she was okay with the Portkey. He figured that she would either be looking at Harry or talking with one of the other doctors, so he made his way upstairs. By the time he reached the first landing, he was panting. The previous night, though he had had Wolfsbane, had not been pleasant, and Remus was ridden with tiredness.

The first room he walked by was Harry's. He glanced inside, pausing, to see Ginny and Harry laughing quietly. Ginny caught Remus' eye and mouthed what looked like, "Hello, Professor." Remus smiled at the girl and continued on, leaving the two to continue talking. In the next room he passed was Cameron, studying something under a microscope. Across the hallway from the lab, Chase and Foreman were talking about something. Remus frowned and continued on. In the last room on the hallway, which seemed to be some sort of office, he could hear the voices of Cuddy and House.

"You're sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. Just—worried, about you guys; about the Hospital…."

"No you're not. You're worried about something more personal…is it the sperm-donor thing? Have you finally decided?"

"No. It's not that, House—it's not anything. Forget it. I—" She paused. "Never mind. It's nearly seven-thirty."

"Call us when you get there. I don't trust this magic very much."

"Unbelievable. You don't trust it, yet you're insisting that you stay here and save the world?" she asked sarcastically.

"I never said I didn't believe it. Belief and trust are two different things entirely."

"It's seven-twenty-eight," said Cuddy quietly. "I guess I just hold this thing and go?"

"This should be interesting."

"Shut up. I hope they make you take one of these things back."

Lupin decided that the Muggles could handle it and that he shouldn't impose right now. He backed away slowly and headed downstairs, vaguely wondering what kind of relationship House and Cuddy had. They certainly seemed to be more than a boss and employee, though they didn't come off as intimate, either. Sighing, he decided that there were more pressing issues at the moment, and went upstairs to examine the will of Albus Dumbledore once more, and to read the letter he'd left him, explaining about the Horcruxes. Remus made a mental note to ask Hermione or Ron about the one they'd supposedly found today, but he trusted that they had put it in a safe place.

* * *

That night, House walked downstairs with the knowledge that Cuddy had arrived safely and was once again pissed off at him and his team, this time for causing her to need to come to England at all. Oh well; he had more important things to worry about.

Ron Weasley was currently beating Gregory House at Chess. Wizard's Chess, House decided, was jinxed. Amused at his own pun, he tuned out the rest of the room, many of whom were watching the Chess game, surprised that House had lasted so long.

"Knight to B7," said Ron, breaking House out of his reverie. House cursed quietly. This kid was good. He began thinking about his next move, but Chase and Foreman and one of the other people were talking about some knight.

"Crazy portrait…."

"…Must be insane…"

"…brain is inflamed or something…"

House suddenly stood up. "Check for encephalitis."

"On a portrait?" asked Chase skeptically.

"No. In the patient."

"But the MRI didn't show any signs of inflammation," argued Cameron.

"Take an LP."

"But House—" began Foreman.

"Queen to F4. Check."

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I promise that the next chapter will be in a few days. Thanks so much for reading! Please review! 


	9. Chapter 9

* * *

Around Midnight, Allison Cameron was making her way downstairs for some water before heading to bed. The MRI had shown that the patient did have encephalitis; House, upon hearing his new puzzle piece, had postponed his game of Chess and spent the next forty minutes debating with his Fellows what Virus was causing Harry's symptoms, which symptoms were caused by the encephalitis itself, and which symptoms were totally unrelated (House still believed that something had put Harry's immune system in the tank). Exhausted from the day's events and from the tests carried out that evening, Cameron stopped in her tracks for a moment and put a hand to her head. She vaguely wondered whether Foreman and Chase were already in bed, and whether House had ever returned downstairs (she had no clue if "game night" was still going on).

Slowly, muffled voices reached her ears from Harry's room.

"…retrieved the Horcrux, at least…."

"Ginny…could have died…."

Cameron closed her eyes sadly and moved closer to the door, unsure of why exactly she was listening on to a conversation between two teenagers.

"Harry, even if you were well, we still would've been there with you. I don't know why you can't understand that we're your _friends_."

"I know, Ginny. And I love you—all of you—so much. You're my family. I just wish that—none of this is real…I might die of this sickness before I even get to face Voldemort—someone else must be able to do it…."

"I thought that you talked about this with Dumbledore. The prophecy could have been about anyone—what you've done has made it about you. And you're not going to die, Harry Potter."

"You don't know that. You guys gave the teacup to Lupin?"

"Yes. And I don't have to know, Harry—I have to believe. I don't know you aren't going to—to die…." Ginny was crying now. "But I know that if you die, my soul will die. You've been my life…I was in love with you before I met you."

"Ginny—"

"And I know that you're too damn noble for your own good, and I know that you are the bravest person I've ever met."

"Dumbledore—"

"Had his time. But we're in this without him, now. Harry, you're not alone!"

"You guys need to be more careful. At least—we're almost done with the Horcruxes."

"Yeah."

"He knows I'm sick."

"Harry, are you sure?"

"Yes. Ginny…he's after you guys. He wants to know exactly what's the matter with me—his Death Eaters are out for blood. I'll bet anything that tomorrow the Daily Prophet will have an article quoting one of Malfoy's cronies about a "Weasley-Weasley-Granger" sighting."

Ginny sighed. "You're probably right…like always. Why is the Order having such a terrible time with recruitment this time around?"

"For one, Dumbledore's gone," replied Harry. "Second, the leader is incapacitated…we don't know who to trust—"

"That's not true, Harry. You're afraid to trust anyone right now, and everyone else wants to follow your trust, the way they followed Dumbledore's."

"You're kidding," said Harry dryly.

"No. I'm not. You might want to start a perspective list of people you know and trust." There was a momentary pause before Ginny continued, "Harry, I know you want to trust people—it's what makes you and Dumbledore different than Tom Riddle. Open up your heart."

"People—lie—Marietta…Peter Pettigrew—" Harry coughed loudly.

Ginny sighed. "Let's talk about something else for a little while. God, I'm sick of this war," she whispered loudly, causing Harry to laugh bitterly. "So do you think you're almost done with the spell for your Animagus transformation?"

"Well I haven't exactly been able to practice much," said Harry defensively. "And you all?"

"I think I'm some type of cat or dog. Not sure though…Ron's is weird, we don't really know…and we think Hermione's definitely a cat, but a regular one, not an exotic species."

"Doesn't surprise me. You'll be a cute cat. Ginny—if I don't make it—no, listen…I want you to promise me that you won't let the Order give up."

"The Order's not going to—"

"Promise me, Gin. I want you to live your life…but a life under Voldemort—is it worth it?"

"I'd die first."

"Be careful."

"I love you, Harry…nothing could stop that…even if one of us doesn't make it, I could never stop loving you…."

Suddenly someone tapped Cameron on the shoulder. She spun around defensively, scrambling to wipe the tears pouring down her face.

"House—I—"

"Eavesdropping?" he asked in a low whisper.

"No—I mean, yes—I mean—please leave me alone," she pleaded, looking up into his eyes. She was vaguely aware of the sudden smallness of the hallway, and of the tear-stains on her face.

"Come here," whispered House. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the new Diagnostics Conferencing room, pulling her over to the couch and sitting her down while he turned on the coffee machine—a final, but ultimately necessary, addition to the medical equipment.

After a few moments of silence, he spoke up. "Attached to another patient?"

"No," said Cameron, regaining her composure. "I'm probably still feeling a little bit off from my sickness…."

"No, you're not. I've seen you sick—right now you're angry." Cameron looked at House piercingly.

"I'm not angry. That's ridiculous."

"I heard part of the conversation they were having, too, Cameron…you're angry at yourself. But why would you be angry?"

"I already told you that I'm not angry, House. I'm just tired. Drop it."

"They seem to have a really strong relationship, no?"

Cameron glanced at House suspiciously. "Since when have you been able to diagnose a 'strong relationship'?"

"Well this is the first one I've seen in a long time. It's probably because they do magic," he shrugged sarcastically. "So are you angry at the patient, the patient's girlfriend, or yourself?"

"House," she said threateningly.

"Definitely yourself." Cameron's eyes flashed, and House stared at her thoughtfully. "But why? Because of your marriage? Because you couldn't love your dying husband as much as that girl loves her dying boyfriend?"

"Wilson told you," said Cameron, her voice toneless.

"No, you just told me."

"You're a jerk, House. And I don't care what you think about me, or about relationships—"

"I'm sorry." Cameron jerked her head up in disbelief. "I think," he continued, "that most relationships…aren't like that. Love—is an idea. Falling out of love, on the other hand, is a mindset. When people start to doubt their ideals—the work of their imaginations—when the idea isn't strong enough, or when it doesn't create the right feeling, people push. Push away other people, and feed on other things than their idea of love—they feed on despair; on the past; the future—on _need_." House handed Cameron a hot mug of coffee. She took it, her eyes wide and her face blank. After a minute or two's reflection, she turned back to House.

"That's not true, and you know it isn't true. When people fall out of love, they feed on hopes for the future, and on regret—and on _reasons_. People want to have an answer for everything, and they don't want to accept that something as abstract as emotion can turn their entire lives around…so they run away from love, saying that love doesn't exist."

"I never said love didn't exist."

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Cameron angrily, "I forgot about your perfect relationship with _Stacy_…."

"So now this is about me?" demanded House.

"You don't want to be happy."

"And you think that _you _would make me happy."

Outside of the room, Tonks had been listening silently for several minutes. She watched the two doctors, surprised at the way they were talking to each other. She watched Cameron stand up.

"I don't care, because you wouldn't—make me happy," she said in a low voice. "You play with me, manipulate me…."

"You're lying," said House, taking a step closer to her and holding onto her arms. Cameron shut her eyes wearily and stood as House pulled her towards him.

"I hate you," she whispered, finally caving in and meeting his eyes. House held her for a moment before smirking and stepping away.

"I'm not going to change," he said seriously.

"Right. Because there's absolutely no reason for a drug-addicted, miserable, self-deprecating bastard to want to be happy," replied Cameron venomously.

Suddenly, a loud crash came from the hallway. Cameron and House looked at each other for a moment before running outside to see what happened.

"Sorry!" greeted Tonks, scrambling up. "I was walking by, and I tripped. So clumsy—"

"Are you okay?" asked Cameron kindly as she held back tears.

"I'm fine," said Tonks, forcing out a laugh. "Just fine. Well, I'm headed downstairs to say goodnight to everyone… see you guys in the morning."

"Are Chase and Foreman still downstairs?" asked House.

"I think so. They were twenty minutes ago, anyway."

"I'll go with you. I need to ask them about a test."

"Right," answered Tonks. "Night, Doctor Cameron."

"Good-night," she replied, smiling thinly. "House," she nodded before turning around and heading to her room. When she was out of sight, House and Tonks started down the hallway towards the stairs.

"She seems a bit—upset tonight," said Tonks casually, looking up at the doctor.

"Nothing new," sighed House.

Tonks frowned. "Do you…care about her?"

"Care?" repeated House blankly. "She's my employee. So, yes, I care that she is competent for work every morning."

"She seems to—you know…have feelings for you..." she continued carefully.

House rolled her eyes. "She has 'feelings' for every pitiful person she encounters. I only wish I could say that I was 'special'," he added sarcastically.

"You know, it isn't easy being in love with somebody who won't have you," said Tonks angrily. "Give her a bit of sympathy, at least. You remind me of my husband last year—only at least he tried to be nice about it."

"Who? Lupin?" scoffed House. "Why'd he push _you _away? I mean, you're young…interesting…."

"Cameron's young and pretty," frowned Tonks. "What's wrong with her?"

"Cameron has a—saving-people complex."

"Well, she is a doctor," replied Tonks, confused.

"So does Harry," said a voice behind them. House and Tonks turned around to see Ginny.

"I thought you were talking to Harry," said Tonks. "How long've you been behind us?"

"Just a minute," smiled Ginny. "You're walking rather slowly. Anyway, Harry reckoned I should try and get in on the Twister game. Apparently, Ron's actually winning, and Harry bet that I'd win. Foreman bet on Ron, and Chase bet on Fred."

"Are only Weasleys left in the game?" laughed Tonks.

"No," said Ginny. "Kingsley and Hestia are playing. Your Mum and Dad were, too, but they fell pretty quickly." Tonks grinned, sighing.

"Good old Mum and Dad…. Hermione not playing?"

"No, she was watching. But I think she wanted to talk with Harry once I was finished." Ginny then glanced at House, as if waiting to see if he had anything to say about the patient. Of course, he didn't, and they reached the bottom of the stairs in time to see Ron wipe out when asked to put his left foot on a red square.

* * *

The next morning, an ocean away from 12 Grimmauld Place, Lisa Cuddy collapsed into a seat behind her desk, exhausted. The time change had caused her to arrive at her hospital at 1:30 in the morning, and she had now been dealing with the flu outbreak for twelve sleepless hours. She had barely been able to sit down when there came a knock at the door.

"Come in," she called irritably. The door opened, and James Wilson entered.

"You okay?" he asked sympathetically.

"Just great. I haven't slept in over twenty-four hours. And I've had to deal with House for about half of that time, and with crazy parents and worried senior citizens and proactive, politicking city council members for the other half." Wilson cringed and took a seat.

"I see that you haven't dragged House back to the States," he said casually.

"If you want to know what House is up to, just ask me directly," snapped Cuddy.

"All right… what is House up to? What kind of case is it?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," sighed Cuddy, sounding extremely distressed.

"Try me," pushed Wilson.

"All right. But don't bother asking again if you don't believe me." She took a deep breath. "He's helping cure—a Wizard, in Britain. The wizard who is prophesized to defeat this evil wizard who is killing and torturing people, probably at this very moment. They're staying in a house with the kid and about ten other Wizards and Witches who are all helping to fight against the 'dark side.'" Wilson rolled his eyes.

"If you can't tell me, just say so…" he muttered, annoyed. He looked back up to her as she shook her head and started shuffling through paperwork. Suddenly, Wilson remembered the night he had played poker with Cuddy, and House's voice filtered through his head. Wilson looked back at Cuddy. If House had been right that time, then she wasn't bluffing….

"Oh my god," he said unbelievingly. "You're serious?"

"Yeah," she said in a voice that hinted she didn't really believe herself.

"Can I go look?" he asked curiously, wondering how on earth House, Cameron, Chase, Foreman, and Cuddy had all managed to be hoodwinked.

"Arrange it with House. And there better not be an outbreak of some new, contagious Cancer while you're gone, Wilson." Suddenly, the doctors both looked up as a knock sounded on the door.

"What is it?" called Cuddy. The door opened and an intern came in.

"Um… I'm supposed to give this to you," she said to Cuddy, handing her a file.

"Um… is that all?" mocked Cuddy sarcastically.

"It's, like, this case that they're having a hard time diagnosing. They want to see if Doctor—House would take it."

"Like, thanks a lot," said Cuddy pointedly. The intern raised her eyebrows and fled the room.

"Kids these days," remarked Wilson, smiling.

"Well, if you go to England, make sure you tell me, make sure you are back in twenty-four hours or less, and make sure you give House this file," said Cuddy tersely, handing it to Wilson.

"Right." With that, Wilson smiled and backed out of the room.

* * *

A/N: Hey, sorry that the chapter's shorter than usual. I wanted to thank everyone so much for the reviews and support this story's getting! I really appreciate it. Please keep reviewing! Thanks: ) 


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